Tainted Blood
by trevorswim
Summary: Elisa Cousland has a secret; one the she has kept from everyone. But on the night of Howe's attack she finds her secret exposed and must join the gray wardens at Ostagar along with seven other recruits as her only hope of survival. All warden origins, AU at points, focuses on Elisa, other wardens liable to wind up dead. Rated M in anticipation of later sex and gore. Please R&R.
1. Prologue Part 1

**A/N Blood is the name of Elisa's weapon of choice; it's similar to a glaive (long bladed staff/spear) but a bit shorter. It's similar to Hawke's weapon in the DA2 destiny trailer so you can look that up if you have no idea what I'm talking about.**

Elisa Cousland looked at the bodies surrounding her. She had convinced her twin sister Alice to get her mother and father to safety while she held off Howe's attackers, she had convinced the knights that a single person with a modified glaive like her Blood could hold the hall as well as the group of them if they sealed off one of the doorways and sent them to clear the keep of any intruders that had already made it inside. Everyone knew of the skill with which she wielded Blood and agreed that she had the best chance to hold off the invaders while the rest cleared the keep.

But they had not imagined the sheer numbers that Howe had brought.

Instead of creating a doorway of death as she had originally planned the sheer mass of invaders had pushed her back into the passageway. Half the forces that had come through had gone off to take the keep and the other half had moved out to surround her in what should have been her final stand.

But it had not been.

Now Elisa stood surrounded by the corpses of roughly a quarter of all the soldiers in the entire arling of Amaranthine; All dead by her hand. Looking around at not just the bodies but the wounds that she had inflicted on them she realized that even if she could take Highever back from the Howe's men she would not be able to stay here any longer, her secret was out. She grabbed a pack of provisions from the corpse of one of the soldiers that she had killed and headed into the wilderness surrounding the place that had been her home for almost 19 years.

oOo

Alice Cousland struggled to stop the tears as she followed Duncan away from the only home she had ever known. In a single horrible night she had lost everything: her parents, her home, even her beloved twin sister was most likely dead after Howe had betrayed them and attacked Highever. Even her dreams of what her life would be had been shattered after Duncan had recruited her into the gray wardens. The cry of a bird drew her attention upwards for the first time in several hours and she realized that they were not headed to Ostagar where the darkspawn were gathered.

"Where are we going?" she inquired, her curiosity overpowering her grief.

"After 400 years of humanity ignoring the darkspawn we are very low on recruits, we're going to see if we can find anyone in Denerim"

oOo

In retrospect, Duran thought Bhelen's plan was both brilliant and very obvious; giving the casteless dwarf poisoned weapons and then putting the rest of the poison in his room and a considerable sum in hers must have been very easy and once done, all he had to do was push for a quick trial so no one could find out what he'd done. Getting Tritan to compete in the proving after Duran had won the one held in his honor must have been laughably easy, Bhelen's lies about Tritan's plan to have him killed aside, Tritan must have felt threatened by his display of skill and ability. A little poison on a blade, a drunken warrior and a casteless that had nothing to lose and Bhelen was an only child.

At least they had had the decency to give him and Natia the poison on top of a shield and sword for him and a pair of daggers for her, a small mercy if the darkspawn overwhelmed them. Normally being cast out of the city like this was a death sentence but Duran remembered the location of a grey warden patrol not far from where they were now, if they could reach the wardens before they left then they should be able to follow them to the surface and safety, even if it meant becoming grey wardens themselves.

A sound drew in the tunnels ahead drew his attention and he drew his sword and began to step forward cautiously, behind him he heard Natia draw her own blades and settle into the fighter's crouch that had proven more than a match for the warriors of the proving only a few days ago. Twice before they had come across groups of darkspawn and they were most likely aware of their presence now, they needed to find the grey wardens quickly or the next battle may be their last.

Stepping ahead Duran quickly realized that the noise he had heard was sounds of fighting, judging from their location it was a good chance that it may be the grey wardens. Exiting the tunnel, Duran looked around to realize that he was right and the wardens were engaging the darkspawn, quickly analyzing the scene he realized that the size of the force was only dangerous with emissary in the back ranks. Turned to Natia, about to order her to kill the emissary when she dashed by, saying "Emissary's gotta die, draw their attention" before blending into the shadows so well that he could barely see her. Shaking his head at arrogance of his own presumptions Duran readied himself and unleashed a mighty war cry before smashing into a group of darkspawn archers.

While the war cry had the desired effect it also placed him in a great deal of danger, Duran found himself holding his shield up to block arrows almost immediately after taking down the first couple of spawn and having to dive to the side once as the emissary tried to cook him with a rather large fireball. Fortunately Natia slit the emissary's throat right after the fireball was launched and the tide of battle quickly turned in the warden's favor – and theirs as well.

After the battle the two were approached by the warden in charge of the expedition "Greetings" he called out "and thank you for your aid, I must inquire however, what brings you to the deep roads alone?"

Natia looked over to Duran, unsure what to say and clearly leaving it up to him "We have been exiled from Orzammar and seek to join you in your fight against the darkspawn" Duran replied "if you'll have us"

The warden didn't even blink "Two recruits as skilled as you two and blight on the surface? I'd consider taking you if you'd killed half the Assembly" he turned and waved for them to follow "we're about a day away from the surface and we've got what we've came for. The darkspawn are massing in the Korcari wilds and the army's gathering to meet them at Ostagar, that's where we're headed next."

**A/N the trailer mentioned earlier can be found here: watch?v=jlACgYHtWCI **

**Also, there will be a second prologue where I introduce the other origins character; I won't focus too much on origins that remain the same as they were in game which is why I have varying amounts of focus on different origins. I will have more on how Elisa reaches the Ostagar and the grey wardens in the next chapter, also I'm going to do a bit AU on the mage Origins, partly in that there's two of them as well a few other changes. I'll do a good bit on the city elf origins, mainly due to the fact that Duncan, Alice, Kallian and Theron can't just magically appear in Ostagar but the Dalish Origins will be summarized in about two sentences, sorry.**

**Another thing, I know that I brought in all the Origins but this story is still mainly focused around Elisa, the leader of the group. I offer no guarantees that any of the others will survive the events of this story as I never meant for this to be a bloodless telling, I'll deviate from the game at points and there will be more than one bloodbath.**

**Anyways I'm still pretty new at this so please R&R**


	2. Prologue Part 2

**A/N First of all Alice does have a mabari, I just forgot to mention him and he'll show up the next time she does, which will be in the prologue part 3, as the mages just took too long. Second anyone who read my synopsis before a posted this chapter, ignore the line about how Alice doesn't know Elisa's secret, I realized that it was kinda stupid for Elisa's beloved twin sister who's followed her around since the day they were born to not know her secret, she knows. **

Stepping over the bodies of the Templars, Elisa tossed the sword she had picked up aside and yanked Blood out of the tree that it pinned the last living Templar to, pointing the blade at his throat "how many of you are out here?" she demanded "how did you know that I would be passing through this way?"

"Not… searching for you" the Templar gasped out "looking for three maleficar… destroyed their phylacteries… helped… initiate… closing net… we'll have them and… you…" with that last word the Templar fell over, dead from the last of his injuries.

"You know" drawled a young man, clad in splintmail and armed with a sword and shield "it's days like these that make me glad I'm not a Templar anymore." He leaned against a tree in a form that looked like he was relaxing but Elisa recognized as a very misleading battle stance, the second she tried anything that looked even remotely hostile he would have his sword out and the battle would be on.

"Oh?" She asked, adopting a similar stance herself, albeit that favored access to the dead Templar's sword then Blood, curious to see if she could fool him. "And why is that?"

"We'll if I was still a Templar I'd be obligated to attack you to avenge my fallen comrades, even though I'm not sure that the poor sods didn't just see the end of that neat little weapon you've got there and jumped the gun. Now that I'm a gray warden I can express my appreciation of your skills and offer you a position in the wardens."

Elisa grinned "Actually I was on my way to Ostagar to join up with you lot."

"You were? You were going to travel all the way to Ostagar by your lonesome self to become a gray warden?"

"Yea"

"Are you all right?"

"I may be a little crazy" Elisa's grin twisted a little "I think the jury's out on that one."

"Well, I'll have to run you by Duncan when we get to Ostagar but other than that welcome aboard. All I ask is that if you do decide that you are crazy make sure it's the 'ohh pretty colours' kind and not 'Princess Stabbitty, stab, kill, kill'"

Elisa held out her hand "Deal."

The man took it "My name's Alistair by the way and you are?"

"Elisa, so we headed straight to Ostagar?"

"Well I was originally sent here to get more mages to join the army at Ostagar and maybe recruit one into the gray wardens, the first parts a bust, there's no way they're letting any mages out of the tower for a while. But a two of the mages they're hunting out here aren't maleficar, one was about to get the brand for the horrific crime of being born with a unique ability and the other's only guilty of helping her friends and running when she had the chance. So I thought that I'd go in, recruit them and leave before anyone realizes that only the Warden-Commander can invoke the right of conscription, you in?"

"Sounds like fun."

oOo

_The day before…_

Solona Amell tried to quench the butterflies in her stomach as the Templars lead her up the stairs to the Harrowing chamber, _relax, _she told herself _you're one of Irving's best students, Jason passed his Harrowing and he's half the mage you are, you'll be fine_. She tried to focus on what spells and effective combinations she knew with limited success, her mind bouncing between how to cast a winter's grasp spell and Templar swords. Her thoughts were interrupted by Irving gently nudging her and telling her to touch the bowl of lyrium in the middle of the room, she did so and was engulfed by a flash of bright light before everything went black.

"Solona, I hate to say this but you cannot pass your Harrowing passed out in the middle of the floor" a voice lightly admonished nearby.

Solona opened her eyes to see an alien landscape; the sky above her was constantly shifting and changing colours, far off islands floated in the sky, shifting from mountains to deserts before vanishing entirely. The ground she lay on was at least solid, if the colours kept making subtle changes that she could barely fathom, much less describe. On her right was a statue of a grotesque creature that appeared human save for the tentacles it had in the place of arms and the mutated head. On her left, grinning and holding a small stick was… her best friend, Neira Surana.

"Neira, where are we and what the hell are you doing here?" Solona groaned as she picked herself off the floor. "This is my Harrowing; you're not allowed to be here."

"We're in the fade of course" Neira replied "I was playing with Jorran's dreams again when I felt you wake up, since it was 2 in the morning I was a bit curious as to where you'd gone until Jorran's dream showed me that you were taking your Harrowing" She shrugged, then grinned "I imagine that he'll get in trouble for not being there. After that it was simply a matter of waiting until you entered the fade again."

Solona wondered yet again what exactly Jorran had done to Neira that caused her to use her unique abilities to manipulate the fade to torture Jorran with nightmares almost every night, the poor man hadn't gotten a good night's sleep since Neira had started on him, almost 2 months ago. She shook her head and returned to the matter at hand "You're not allowed to interfere with my Harrowing" she reminded Neira.

"Technically the parameters of the test state that you must enter the fade and resist a demon using only what you find within the fade" She spread her arms, stick still in one hand "I consider myself well and truly found"

"I don't want you to help"

Neira frowned "Why the hell not?"

"I want to prove to myself that I can do this" Solona explained "I'm second only to you among the apprentices and I'm better than most of the junior mages and I need to do this alone."

Neira shrugged again "Have it your way than, I'll just watch from the sidelines" she flashed an amused, predatory grin "besides it'll be fun to watch you tear a couple of demons in half, you'll be done in no time"

Neira vanished, the fade rippling briefly where she had been. Solona walked down the path to explore the island she had found herself on, nervousness forgotten, the demons didn't stand a chance.

oOo

_Present_

Solona ran through the forest alongside Neira, cursing Jowan and his idiocy, if he hadn't started practicing blood magic, then they probably wouldn't have branded Neira's abilities as blood magic and they sure as hell wouldn't have branded her maleficar for helping the two of them, thank the maker Neira had managed to switch out her phylactery with a fake, though she probably didn't want to know how. However Neira had managed it, they had been able to destroy Jowan and Neira's phylacteries and escape, but not before being confronted by the Templars and watching Jowan use blood magic on them, hence the running for their lives. Spotting a glint of metal armour up ahead, Solona pulled Neira to the left only to see more Templars coming from that direction, behind her a third group of Templars in addition to the ones that had been chasing them closed in. They were trapped.

"Okay, I'm sure you mages are eager to get on with your escaping and you Templars are eager to get on with your holy smiting but if you could all wait a moment to see how these lovely ladies feel about the rite of conscription and then I'll be on my way" Called out the grey warden that had been talking to Irving earlier that day as he strode into the Templars midst, followed by an armoured women about their age who carried something that looked suspiciously like a mage's staff with a long blade at the end.

"You can't be serious" yelled Knight-Commander Cullen "These are two maleficar guilty of blood magic-"

"You know full well that neither of these girls are blood mages, otherwise much fewer of you, if any at all would still be standing considering the conventional power that these two have displayed time and time again. And so I ask again, what do you ladies think of the right of conscription?"

Neira and Solona looked at each other, than looked at the Templars surrounding them. Neira spoke up "Right now it's the best thing since sliced bread"

"Well than I hereby conscript the both of you into the grey wardens; let's be off before the nice Templars decide to try their luck anyhow" Alistair replied before walking off into the forest "This here is Elisa by the way" indication the armored women that had been following him as well "She's a new recruit just like you two"

Neira looked Elisa over "Well aren't you interesting" she murmured.

"I could say the same about you" Elisa replied, Neira grinned

"Just a quick question ser, if you don't mind me asking" Solona inquired, remembering something that she had heard from an older mage in the tower.

"Depends on the question but go ahead"

"I though the grey wardens only ever had one mage at a time, why did you recruit the both of us?"

"Well technically only the warden commander is allowed to invoke the right of conscription so let's get out of here before the nice Templars remember either of those facts shall we?"

**A/N I promise that the next prologue will be the last and then we'll start at Ostagar. Also, yes Neira is a dreamer and that will play apart later on and secondly, the exchange between Neira and Elisa was flirting to some extent but it was also remark on how these two unique individuals noticed things in each other that were hidden away from normal eyes.**

**Again Please R&R**


	3. Prologue Part 3

**A/N Just wanted to warn everyone that this is somewhat of a darker chapter; Shianni isn't exactly dressed when Kallian gets to Vaughan and subsequently loses it. The fact that Kallian specializes in quick effective strikes meant to cause pain and bleed her opponent out and has some skill as an "interrogator" really doesn't help keep the scene happy and cheery.**

"Wakey Wakey! Eggs and Bakey! Get up Kali! You don't want to miss you own wedding!"

Kallian Tabris groaned and rolled out bed before looking at her mildly drunk cousin "Wedding? Fuuuuuck"

"Or maybe you do" Shianni said "Here" she held out the bottle in her hand "This will make it a bit easier to get through"

"No thanks, if I have to get married to some guy I've never met I'll do it with dignity, not drunk before breakfast like some slattern"

"Hey!"

"You walked right into that Shi, admit it"

"Fine, be that way, anyways your father's in the kitchen and he wants to speak to you before you go to meet the groom"

"He probably found out about my plans to run away and join the Dalish" joked Kallian "better go see what he wants"

Shianni left the room singing some limerick about an elven bard, King Maric and a wedding. Kallian watched her go before getting dressed, shaking her head. She loved Shianni but sometimes she had to question her cousin's sense.

When she left her room she was greeted by her father. "Good afternoon Kallian, I'm sure Shianni has already told you that your betrothed has arrived from Highever a day early. We decided to move the wedding up to today, lowering your chances of escaping"

Kallian grinned impishly "A small chance is still a chance"

"Ever the optimist" her father chuckled, before adopting a more serious tone "I don't want you mentioning the training your mother gave you, the knives, the lock picking, the _poisons_"

Kallian raised her eyebrows at her father emphasis on the word poison "Worried I'll go all Antivan on my new husband?"

"I'm not worried that you'll do it over something petty but I worry that if he stepped too far out of line that you wouldn't hesitate"

"I wouldn't poison him, it'd put me too high up on the list of suspects" Kallian grinned

"I'm not sure if your joking and I don't think I want to know" her father sighed "anyways, go find Sorris, he's in the center of town fretting about the wedding"

"Great, we can plan our escape" Kallian went to leave but her father stopped her "you should put your wedding dress on first"

"Okay" Kallian took the dress into her room to change, once fully dressed she looked at herself in the mirror, she had to admit she looked good, and the dress even had a nice ruffle at the small of her back where she could hide a pair of small knives, not her daggers but something at least.

Kallian found Sorris not far from the town square. He turned when he saw her approach "Cousin!" he called out "come to celebrate our last hours of freedom?"

"I was more interested in planning our dramatic escape, if you're interested" she quipped as she hopped on top of a barrel

"Escape? Where would we go? Off with the Dalish, to live in some forest?"

"Sounds like a plan, now all we need is a dramatic diversion, something with chaos, the city guard and-" a yell from the town square cut Kallian off. The two of them looked over to see three human nobles walk into the town square.

"It's a party!" called out the leader of the three "Grab a few whores and have a good time!"

"Clear off shem!" Shianni yelled "You're not welcome here!"

The human walked over to her "I go where I want, you knife-eared bitch" he hissed "and I think I'll start my fun with you"

Kallian clenched her teeth and stepped forward, she wasn't going to leave her cousin at the mercy of some human "If you know what's good for you shem you'll leave. Now." Her voice was low and dangerous, if this human had a lick of sense he'd leave.

Unfortunately he didn't "Well aren't you a feisty one" he chuckled darkly "I'll enjoy taming you." Seeing Kallian's opinion on the matter clearly across her face he continued "Now make it easy on yourself and come quietly, or else I'll-" A bottle smashed into the back of his head, knocking him unconscious. Behind him stood Shianni, holding the bottle in her hand.

"Are you crazy!" cried out one of the Human lackeys "That's Bann Vaughan, the son of the Arl of Denerim!"

"Oh shit." Shianni muttered, looking like she was about to throw up.

"Then just think what will do to you" Kallian held up one of her knives, grinning evilly "I love the feel of Shemlen flesh beneath my blade"

Without their leader, the two humans quickly left, carrying an unconscious Vaughan between them.

"Oh fuck" Shianni, still looked like she was about to throw up. "I really screwed up this time"

Kallian was also worried about what Vaughan might do, but there was nothing she could do about so she put on a brave face "In order to take revenge he'd have to admit that an elven women knocked him out, he won't do that"

"Yea" Sorris chipped in, "That shem looked too proud to ever admit he was bested by any elf, let alone a woman"

Kallian broke off of the group to speak to the man who was her betrothed, Nelaros; he seemed nice enough and he was comely but Kallian was still against the idea of an arranged marriage and wondered if there was any way to call off the wedding without causing a huge ruckus. After a few minutes of talking to him Sorris came over to her, touching her arm softly and quietly muttered "Cousin, we've got a problem"

Kallian made her excuses to Nelaros and followed Sorris "What is it?" She asked, worried that Vaughan may have come back. Sorris jerked his head toward the entryway to the alienage, where two humans and a dog were making their way towards the town square. Kallian looked them over, they were heavily armed but didn't show the malicious intent that Vaughan and his lackeys had shown. "We'll go talk to them, see if we can get them to leave." She decided "If they want to cause trouble or won't leave we'll kill them."

"Kill them?" Sorris questioned "Cousin you scare me sometimes."

"We'll only kill them if they won't leave" Kallian shrugged "There's too many vulnerable people here today and I won't let them get hurt by some Shemlen thugs" She approached the two humans, an older, bearded man with dark skin and hair and a young women with long, wavy, black hair that contrasted her pale skin and blue eyes. Both were carrying a sword and several daggers. "Leave humans, you're not welcome here." Kallian declared

The man raised his eyebrows "I will not as, I have urgent business here that I need to see to"

"What business could a shem possibly have in the alienage? On the day of a wedding?" Sorris inquired

"Ah, so today is the wedding? Who do I owe congratulations to?"

A look of sadness passed over the women face "These two, judging by the looks on their faces" She said "and I doubt the girl's to happy about, by the how much she looks like my sister when the matter was broached" The sadness intensified briefly before she mastered herself and resumed a neutral face.

Kallian stepped forward, moving her hands so she could reach her knives without showing the man too much movement "Urgent or not I'm going to have to ask you to leave, I will not have Shemlen here today"

"I will not leave" the man replied "Do you intend to force me?"

Instead of answering Kallian slowly reached for her knives, preparing to make a lunge for the man's throat before he even saw them but was stopped by the point of a dagger pressed into her back; blocking her left hand's path to her blades and ready to sever her spine at a moment's notice.

"She faces down an armed stranger without hesitation or fear, truly she is as formidable as you said Valendrian" The man said to the village elder that now approached them.

"You know this human Valendrian?" asked Kallian, letting her hands fall away from her blades and turning her head to the women sheath the dagger on her belt with a jolt of surprise; she hadn't see her leave the man's side.

"Duncan is an old friend of mine and very welcome on this wonderful day" Valendrian replied.

"Thank you, old friend. This is a new recruit that I have picked up: Lady Alice Cousland" Duncan indicated to women.

"Just Alice" She said turning to Kallian "What do you have under that fold? I wasn't sure anything was there until you started reaching for them."

"A pair of small knives" Kallian replied "They're useful for concealed carry, even if they're not daggers"

"Where'd you get them" Alice inquired eagerly "They seem like they would be a great thing to have a formal events."

Kallian decided that she liked this human. "I have a second pair in my house, if you'd like to buy them"

"How much?"

Kallian thought for a moment "pair like that? 30 silvers"

"Done"

Kallian grinned "I've got a wedding to attend but after that I'd be more than happy to get them for you"

"If we could get back to the matter at hand" Duncan interrupted "I am a grey warden and looking for recruits to aid the army at Ostagar. From what Valendrian's told me you are a good candidate."

"You're looking for recruits? Here?" Kallian asked "An alienage doesn't seem like a place where'd you find many potential gray wardens"

"There is no place where you'd find many potential gray wardens and I am familiar with how talent can be found in the most unlikely of places"

"Perhaps we could speak more of the matter after the ceremony" Valendrian interjected "I see that the priestess has arrived."

"Very well" Duncan acquiesced "Let us move on then"

The group of them went over to the stage in the town square and Kallian and Sorris stepped up onto the stage beside their respective betrotheds. Just as the mother was about to begin the ceremony there was a disturbance at the edge of the crowd.

Vaughan walked through the crowd, backed by his lackeys from before as well as a group of armed and armored guards. Kallian gulped, there was no way she could take out this many guards with only her knives. "Sorry to interrupt mother but we're having a party and we're dreadfully short of-" he chuckled evilly "female guests"

"Milord" the mother cried out "this is a wedding!"

"If you want to dress your pets up and have a tea party, that's your business" Vaughan brushed her off "Now let's see… the brides, those two, the one in the tight dress and… where's the bitch that bottled me?"

"Right here Milord!" One of the guards called out as they grabbed Shianni.

"Let go if me you Shemlen pigs!" Shianni cried out, struggling ineffectively against the guards. Not for the first time Kallian regretted not forcing Shianni to learn more combat, at least Sorris knew something.

"I'll enjoy putting you in your place bitch" Vaughan leered

"If you touch I'll cut you balls of human!" Kallian cried out

"Such strength of will, best save you for last" Vaughan nodded to one of the guards and before Kallian could react the pommel of his sword struck her in the temple and everything went dark.

oOo

When Alice saw the guards she had immediately reached for her daggers and moved to intercept them when Duncan stopped her. "We are grey wardens" he said "we do not interfere"

"We can't just let them do this!"

"We can and we will, besides" Duncan chuckled "If half of what Valendrian said about Kallian was true, these men will find that they have bitten off more than they can chew"

Realizing that forcing Duncan to stop her would cause too much trouble for them to handle Alice watched as Vaughan knocked Kallian out and collected the rest of the women.

As the men turned to leave Kallian betrothed, Nelaros, Alice thought his name was blocked their path "No!" He cried out "I will not stand by while you do this!"

Without hesitation Vaughan ran him through "Then die" he chuckled "and have no choice in the matter"

As soon as they left the alienage immediately exploded in outrage; some of the elves wanted to storm the Arl's mansion and others wanted to simply wait it out, claiming that violence would only make it worse. Alice could see Sorris attempting to gather a group to bring the women back but he was no leader and the crowd was too fearful after Nelaros' death to do anything just yet.

Remembering the knives Kallian had on her Alice shrugged and turned her attention to the entrance of the alienage; if what Duncan said was true then the women would be walking through that gate in no time.

oOo

Kallian came too on a cold stone floor, with the other women looking down at her. She attempted to use her hands to sit up but found them bound behind her "What happened?" She asked.

"After they knocked you out they rounded us up and took us Arl's mansion. They locked us in here and took Shianni to Vaughan's room, they said we're going to entertain the guards and that Vaughan's going to save you for later!" Nola hysterically replied.

Kallian checked to see if her knives were still there, they were. Slipping one out and getting to work on the ropes she asked Nola "How long have we been here?"

"Only a few minutes they only left us here so they could make a space for us to entertain them" the word "entertain" had a hysterical note to it.

"Calm down" Kallian said, cutting through the ropes and holding up her knives. "I'm going to kill the first guards that come through that door and then you're going to get out of here, do you know the way?"

"Y-y-y-yes, I remember"

"Good" Kallian made sure to keep her voice calm and controlled "when you get out, get to the alienage as fast as you can, I'm going to get Shianni and then join you ok?" She heard a key turn in the lock and without waiting for an answer she stepped beside the door just before it opened, revealing two guards. Kallian plunged her blade into the throat of the first one as the second one swung his sword at her head, she ducked and sliced his femoral artery before burying the blade in the back of his knee, causing him to fall over.

She turned to the other women "Get out! Run!" She yelled and they scattered. Kallian bent over the bodies of the guards, removing her knives before putting them away and then taking the daggers they had been carrying. She noticed that the one guard was still alive and bleeding out, she smiled and walked away; she saw no reason to ease his suffering.

Steaming with rage, Kallian headed towards where she assumed Vaughan's room would be. As she was doing so she strode into what appeared to be the mess hall. "Hey!" one of the men yelled, apparently an off-duty guard. Kallian didn't hesitate; she simply hurled one of her knives into throat of the man before drawing the guard's daggers and killing the second one, she disarmed the last one and knocked him to the ground before pressing the dagger to his throat.

"Where's the girl!" She snarled, pressing the second dagger into the crock of his arm; it wouldn't kill him, just hurt a lot "Tell me!"

"Th-through that door" stammered the guard "Vaughan took her to his quarters; they're past the main entrance and at the end of the hallway. I don't want to die"

Kallian smiled grimly "Too late" and slit his throat and headed in the way he had mentioned. She hardly slowed the few times she encountered guards, killing or incapacitating them before leaving them to bleed out on the floor. Kallian knew the guards she left alive would either bleed out before anyone could help them or be crippled and took pleasure in it; everyone who had let this happen would pay.

Kallian quickly reached the door to Vaughan's quarters, which was guarded by his two lackeys. She quickly dispatched them; mildly regretting that she couldn't take her time with them before bursting through the door just in time to see Vaughan draw himself out of Shianni.

Seeing her, Vaughan scrambled for a weapon but Kallian was on top of him before he could reach anything. "Please don't kill me!" he begged "I'll do anything"

Kallian smiled darkly and drew her blade across his groin. Vaughan screamed as his balls bounced across the floor. "You'll live" She promised "For a little while." Grabbing his hand she held it against the desk and plunged a dagger through it. Vaughan screamed. "You have a debt to pay Vaughan, and I intend to collect." She plunged the second dagger into his gut, moving it around until she could smell thing stink of cut intestines. Then she grabbed Shianni's torn dress and helped her put it on. "Can you walk?" She asked, knowing better than to ask of Shianni was ok.

"With help sure" Shianni replied "I just hope we don't run into any guards"

"Don't worry, there all dead Shi. Everyone who hurt you is dead."

"Then let's get out of here"

Together they left for the alienage, the sound of Vaughan desperately screaming for healer music to their ears.

**A/N That was way longer than I thought it would be. I'll bring Theron in the next time we see Kallian and Alice as I'm keeping his origin pretty much to the letter. Anyways the next chapter will start with Elisa, Alistair, Neira and Solona arriving in Ostagar, they will not be greeted by King Cailan however, as that will happen to Duncan's group only. Also since the recruits are going to trickle in over the course of about a week there'll be more time for them to interact with one another and we'll find a bit more about them.**


	4. Chapter 1

Elisa twisted to side to avoid getting knocked to the ground by her attacker's shield, before she could counter-attack her opponent's sword swished towards her head, forcing her to lean forward. Falling shoulder-first into the dirt she rolled away to assume a battle stance as her attacker attempted to strike her with his shield once more. Elisa plunged Blood into the ground and dodged into her attacker's arms, from there she swept his feet out from under him and went down on her knees beside him. She snatched a dagger and held it to Alistair's throat. She looked up at the Warden Master at arms "How was that?" He nodded to someone behind her.

Elisa grabbed Alistair's sword and flipped it backward to parry the stab of the warden behind her and quickly spun in a maneuver that brought her to her feet and knocked the warden off-balance, using the situation to her advantage she touched Alistair's sword to the warden's side. "Stuck" yelled the Master at arms just as two greatswords swung towards her. Dropping to her knees before rolling backwards to Blood she grabbed her weapon and touched it to the back of the neck of the warden who had been slower to turn around. Stepping away from the swing of the other, she stepped within his reach and pressed Blood to his throat.

"Very good" said the Master at arms and Elisa relaxed for half a second before parrying a dagger meant for her spine. Turning around she saw three wardens; one wielded a pair of daggers, the second a sword and shield and the third a greatsword. Elisa threw a pouch of sand she kept on her belt into the face of the dagger-wielding warden, touching her blade to his heart she grabbed one of his daggers and moved to the greatsword wielding one, ducking his swing she touched the dagger to his heart and then flipping Blood to touch the femoral artery of the last warden.

"If I had a hundred of you, we'd have the dead trenches cleared out in a week" Said the Master at arms "As it is I think I'm going to be demoted, where did you learn to fight like that?"

Elisa shrugged "I've always had a fascination with weapons, not only their use but how they came into being and the tactics behind their use. Up until a few years ago I was unable to decide which type of weapon I liked the most so I studied all of them with considerable diligence, that and my natural talent gave me some skill with all of them."

"Some skill? From what I just saw and the weapons displays I put you through earlier I'd say you have a mastery of all of them. What happened a few years ago?"

"I designed Blood; she's a modified glaive whose long blade and mid-length pole make her suitable for anything from the open field to a tight corridor combat. After I got my hands of some starsteel I convinced my parents to fund her forging and had her crafted by Master Wade in Denerim."

"Master Wade? He's the best smith in Ferelden, that must of cost a fortune"

"Nah, once I showed him the starsteel and the design he said he'd do the work for free. We spent the entire hundred-sovereign budget on materials, heartwood staff, all the best enchantments, you name it we bought it. I eventually wound up giving Harren forty sovereigns so he would stop whining but that was out of my own pocket."

He shook his head "A hundred and forty sovereigns for that beauty? What a bargain." He turned to leave "The king asked me to work with him and some of his personal guard so I better go do that." He called over his shoulder as he walked away. "You are in no dire need of training so you're free to go"

Elisa grinned "Thanks!" She called out before heading over to where Neira and Solona were watching.

Solona was watching with open-mouthed astonishment "That was amazing!" she gasped "You took out seven wardens in less than two minutes! No wonder Alistair was so quick to recruit you!"

Neira was watching her slyly "Maybe you should try not cheating" she teased "It would be the honorable thing to do."

Elisa grinned at the honour comment, knowing Neira's opinion of mixing honour and combat was somewhere along the lines of "it makes it easier to kill the idiots". "But I cheat so well" she shot back "why would I ever fight fair?"

"Maybe so poor sods like me don't look so bad when we're taken apart by your second move?" Alistair quipped as he approached.

"That just reminds you that you need to work on your sword work, keeps you alive" she smiled at Alistair.

"Fair enough, how do you block a move like that anyways?"

"Lower your shield and bring your sword across your chest, that way you can swing out as the approach and if they manage to duck you can bash them with your shield."

"Sounds awkward"

"It is and you won't do much damage but it forces them back and prevents you from winding up flat on your back with a dagger in your throat."

"Fair enough"

"Anyways I've got to talk to the Warden's Second about you guys. See you in a bit." Alistair wandered off, heading towards the Warden's main tent.

"Could I see Blood?" Neira asked "I've never seen a weapon like it."

"Sure" Elisa unclipped Blood from its harness across her back and handed it to Neira. Neira looked the weapon over for about half a minute before running her hand along the pole, where she touched Blood it glowed, revealing a considerable amount of runes; some red, some blue. Neira raised her eyebrow at Elisa. Elisa mirrored the movement.

"It's a fascinating weapon" Neira said "Where'd you find the materials for the staff?"

"Wonders of Thedas, there's no better place to get a staff"

"I must admit some surprise than, I cannot imagine they would help make a weapon like this."

"Why not?" Asked Solona "Wonders of Thedas is often more than willing to help make enchanted weapons, here let me see" She reached for Blood, when she touched it her eyes went wide "Oh, yea they would never have help with this." She said, staring at Elisa as if she'd never seen her before.

"The staff I purchased was capable of holding more enchantment then it had." Elisa explained "I used several enchantments that I had acquired during a trip to Tevinter a year before that. Not to mention the blade itself was capable of holding several enchantments."

"What about you two?" Elisa asked, changing the subject "What sort of magic do you guys work?"

"Neira works with spirit, entropy and a little bit of creation; she's also one of the best spirit healers the circle has ever seen." Solona answered "I work with primal and creation but I'm nowhere near Neira in raw power."

"What Solona fails to say is that her endurance allows her to cast spells far longer than any of the other mages in the circle, I may be able to hammer my opponent into the dust in a few minutes if not less but Solona just keeps coming, I've never actually see her run out of mana." Neira added. "Anyways I see Alistair's returning, let's see what he wants."

"Hey, we just got word from the Warden-Commander, Duncan that he'll be here in a few days with two new recruits, one of whom is your sister Elisa" Alistair said as he walked up

Elisa's breath caught "My sister! She's alive? Do you know what happened to my parents?" The questions came out in a rush, especially quick for Elisa.

"Alice is alive in well, though she's been recruited into the grey wardens. Your parents did not escape the castle however, I'm sorry"

Elisa smiled sadly "I thought I'd lost them all and I'd have to tell Fergus how our entire family is dead because I couldn't hold a doorway. Alice alive is better than I'd hoped and I'd like to think my parents died happy knowing all their children survived."

"Well Duncan sent this message from Denerim and they're heading straight here after investigating a possible darkspawn infestation in the Brecilian forest. They should be three days away at this point. You'll get to see your sister in four days' time. We'll also be getting two new recruits with the wardens that are coming in tomorrow, two dwarves. In the meantime King Cailan wants to meet the new recruits, especially since two of you are mages and the other took out seven wardens, be warned Elisa, he'll probably want to spar with you; try to take him down easy."

**A/N I lied, it'll only take four days for everyone to get here. Next chapter- a skirmish with the darkspawn and we finally introduce Theron. Duran and Natia might arrive in Ostagar, I haven't decided yet. This chapter is the first that didn't just flow onto the page and I'm kinda wondering if it showed, I'd appreciate it if anyone could let me know**

**And as always, please R&R, thanks **


	5. Chapter 2

**A/N just realized that unless you looked at the DA2 destiny trailer then you still don't know what Blood looks like. When I wrote this note out I thought the description would be important in this chapter and since I've already written this out I'll describe it to you now; Blood is about 1.5 meters in length (For all the Americans out there that's 4.9 feet), about a third of that is the blade and the rest is the staff portion, Elisa can hold the staff in different places depending on how close her opponents are. The blade is made up of a steel-looking metal and the staff is made of a dark brown, almost black, wood with various runes carved into it (these are what lit up when Neira touched it), at the end of the staff is a round, red globe, with a diameter of about 1.5 times the width of the staff itself. I won't go into how Elisa uses it because that completely differs depending on the situation.**

"_You'll teach me?"_

_The child stood alone in the fade terrified by her ignorance, what little she did know terrified her all the more._

"_Yes child" replied the spirit, powerful, knowledgeable and completely apathic "I give you the knowledge to handle your gifts, and protect and conceal yourself from those who would do you harm. In return you will share with me your knowledge of the mortal realm, I will see through your eyes, feel, touch, smell and hear what you do; you will do this and I will finally know the nature of mortal creation."_

"_Then I accept" said the child, and the spirit reached out and touched her forehead._

__oOo

The Darkspawn seemed to be rather fond of night raids. It was commonly assumed that this was because living in the deep road made them more accustomed to darkness but no one had ever confirmed if it was a simple instinct-based preference or if they were weaker in the sun. Whatever the reason Elisa found herself out of bed at two in the morning and facing an army of darkspawn along with the other grey wardens. "I know the three of you are not yet grey wardens" Said the Warden-Master at arms, who was in charge with the absence of both the Warden-Commander and his second. "But you have all shown considerable skill and we have need of anyone who can fight. Let this be a trial; should you survive today then you will be made Grey wardens tonight." He chuckled "I must say that very few have such a harrowing introduction into the wardens, best of luck to you."

"Is there anything we should know?" asked Elisa "Any particular darkspawn we should target?"

"The Archdemon commands the horde and he is not here, so no matter who you kill, the army will not crumble. However the more powerful the darkspawn, the greater the connection they have with the Archdemon. We call the most powerful generals; should you manage to kill a general the tactics of the army will suffer. But be warned: darkspawn generals are far more dangerous, you should not engage one alone; if you see one call out to the rest of us and we will attempt to aid you."

Elisa, Solona and Neira looked at each other. Neira shrugged "See a darkspawn, kill it. See a scary darkspawn, yell for help, then kill it; seems simple enough"

"Very good" Said the Master at arms "Solona and Neira, you will be at the back with the mages and archers. Elisa, you will be at the front with me and the other wardens."

The three separated, each to go to their separate places. Neira took a spot near the medic tents, along with one of the senior enchanters that had come from the towers, while Solona took spot next to the archers, preparing to add her volley of death to theirs. Elisa followed the Master at arms to the front and found herself next to Alistair. "Worried?" he asked.

"Not at all" she replied "I'm eager to start killing these creatures."

"Well you're more confident than me" Alistair replied

Then the battle horn sounded and the fight was on.

The first part of the battle went fairly well, the darkspawn were vicious but the king's army employed sound tactics and outnumbered the darkspawn, however the darkspawn's ferocity was felling many soldiers; knowing that the darkspawn stood to receive a great number of reinforcements as more poured out from the deep roads, it was clear that they would win this battle but unless the generals were killed soon, they would not win the next. As Elisa fought, dealing death to the darkspawn without mercy, a shout from the Master at arms drew her attention; he had found a general. Elisa immediately changed course, carving her way through the darkspawn to reach the general that the Master at arms had pointed out; the general was obvious to anyone who saw him; he excluded power unlike any of the other darkspawn and wielded a well-made dragonbone sword that emitted electricity from the blade in each hand.

The Master at arms was the first to reach him, Elisa close on his heels; the others not far behind. As he charged the general Elisa felt a spike of dread "Wait!" She called out, hoping to warn the Master at arms, but it was too late; as the Master at arms charged the general lifted one of his swords and spoke a single word, launching a bolt of lightning from the end of the blade. The Master at arms dodge to one side but as he was recovering the general moved forward and ran him through, he was dead before he hit the ground.

Elisa ran into the clearing surrounding the general; seeing the wardens close on her heels he raised his hand, circling them both with a ring of fire. The general swung his sword in a downward motion, sending a whip of lightning towards her; she rolled to one side and came to her feet as the general bore down on her. As he came straight towards her she dodge to one side, using Blood's length to attempt to slide under his left blade while staying away from his right; he spun as she reversed Blood, attempting to drive the blade into his left thigh while drawing a dagger to parry his right sword. He successfully parried her stab and she spun away, hurling her dagger towards his chest as she did so; he dodged it and they circled around each other until she found the corpse of the Master at arms at her feet.

The general raised his sword at her. Elisa grabbed the dead man's sword and charged; leaping to the left as the lightning headed toward her. Leaping up she used the sword to parry his left blade as she grabbed Blood just before the blade, arm extended, prepared to decapitate him; with impossible speed the general brought his right blade straight toward Elisa's stomach

Elisa cried out a single word.

And the blade passed straight through.

The general had little time to register his surprise that his blade had passed through his opponent as if she were not there as Elisa quickly removed his head from his shoulders. Elisa grinned, while a sure-fire way to expose herself if anyone saw it, the fade shroud ability was still an excellent last ditch resort. Snapping Blood into its harness on her back Elisa grabbed the swords the general had been using; they conducted magic as well as Blood did and were too powerful to be left out here for the darkspawn to use again. Turning to face the darkspawn as the ring of fire faded and the other wardens moved to back her up she grinned; the battle was won and these idiots didn't know it yet.

oOo

"So, what was your family like?" Kallian asked, sick of being stuck between Alice's melancholy and Theron's broodiness, a fate she'd suffered ever since their side-trip into the Brecilian forest that had resulted in them destroying a tainted mirror and picking up another recruit, a moody Dalish elf that seemed to hold considerable hatred towards humans. On the way to the forest Kallian had spoken with Duncan but since leaving the Dalish camp he had become troubled and less approachable than he had been before.

"Why do want to know?" Alice inquired, keeping a neutral, cautious tone clearly unsure of why Kallian wanted to know.

"Because they seem to be all you think about." Came the reply "And I want to get to know you better, after all well be fighting for our lives together once we reach Ostagar."

Alice sighed, a sound born of sadness, not irritation or annoyance Kallian noted "I know some people complain about their parents but to me my parents were the best I could have. My mother was a kind and loving women who was always ready with a kind word to whoever needed it, she always searched for the diplomatic solution to a problem but never let that cripple her if violence was necessary, she taught me and my sister how to judge people and their motives, understanding what they would do and why. My father was a good and fair man who loved both his family and his people equally, he always made sure we had what we needed but never had anything in excess, if we wanted something more, we had to earn it."

Alice spoke sadly of her memories, but seemed happy to share them with another "He taught me and my sister how to fight" She continued "He started with teaching us both how to use the traditional sword and shield but when I started to show more interest in knife fighting he started to search for a teacher, much to his frustration however, he was unable to find a weapon master who specialized in such fighting." Alice smiled slightly "eventually he was called to judge a man who'd taken out four of his guards trying to steal some food from his family and he gave the man a choice; he could be flogged or he could take a paid position to teach me knife fighting. By that point my sister, the weapon master that she was, had already mastered the level of sword and shield and two-handed play that anyone in the castle could teach her so she joined in to; she said that it wasn't until years later, when she'd finally gained notice by the truly great weapon masters of Thedas that she'd found a teacher as enthusiastic and focused as thief had been."

Kallian should have been surprised to find out that this noble's daughter had been trained by a thief but realized she was not; Alice's movements and combat style was too similar to her own, or Duncan's for that matter. She realized with a jolt and focused at the man who'd saved both their lives, seeing how he had known to look in the city slums for the skill the grey wardens required made her wonder where he came from.

Kallian shook her head and filled that thought away, turning back to Alice she asked "What about your siblings? You mentioned having a sister, do you have any others?"

"I have my twin sister Elisa and my older brother Fergus." Alice replied "Fergus is a traditional older brother; loving, caring and protective, he got me and Elisa out of trouble on more than one occasion, he married the daughter of an Antivan trader Oriana and has- had a son" Grief mired Alice's face as she continued "Fergus was sent ahead to Ostagar with most of our men so he's still alive but his wife and child were murdered when Howe attacked Highever." Kallian felt an edge of the chill she had felt when facing Vaughan in Denerim – anyone who thoughtlessly slaughtered the helpless deserved far worse than death. A muttered curse besides them drew their attention to their attention to Theron.

"What is it?" asked Kallian

"Anyone who kills children deserves to buried up to their neck and left for the birds to peck out their eyes" came the reply.

"You were listening?" Kallian asked, surprised.

"You said it yourself city-bound, if we are to be fighting alongside one another then it is best to know who is watching our back."

"Fair enough" Alice said, nodding "anything else?"

"You mentioned your sister was a weapons master, what do you mean by that?"

A look of loss drew over Alice's face as she began to speak about Elisa "Elisa was possibly the single most talented arms master I have ever even heard off, as I said she started off with the sword and shield at ten like I did and took to it like a fish to water, she was learning quicker than anyone had even thought possible, before the year was up she was competent with a greatsword; the only thing that held her back was her small size prevented her from truly learning it. She began to immerse herself in weapon's play and battle tactic, fascinated by not only how to use weapons but when they are most effective; she strove to learn all she could, and not just about weapons either, she was always seeking out more knowledge about anything she could; culture, history, whatever she could learn. When she got older she began to travel, seeking out more knowledge about weapons all over Thedas and mastering all kinds of different forms of combat along the way. For the longest time she simply couldn't focus on a single weapon that she would use as her main until when she was 19 she finally gave up with traditional weapons and designed a weapon she called Blood; it's based off a weapon from the Anderfells, called the glaive, a normal glaive is a pole arm with a staff the length of a of a normal human's height and a blade the length of a short sword on the end. Elisa shortened the staff of Blood so it's only a meter long and lengthened the blade to half that. She had to make up her own fighting style for it but that only made her unpredictable; she was a weapon master with any other weapon, with Blood she was death incarnate."

"You said she was a weapon master, what happened to her?" Theron asked

"She stayed behind at Highever to hold the doorway into the inner keep but Howe had brought too many men, they managed to push her back and enter the keep. There were so many men, in a narrow passage way she stood a chance but they pushed her into the inner pathways, which are wide enough to allow ten men to walk shoulder-to shoulder, she was surrounded and killed."

"How do you know this?"

"One of the knights told me before he died of his wounds, he saw her get pushed back and half of Howe's surround her."

"But did you see the body?"

"No"

"Then if she is as half as good as you claim she is it is possible that she somehow managed to escape."

It was clear on her face that Alice had considered this possibility and refused to acknowledge it in fear of being wrong. "Why do you care?" She asked "Don't you hate humans? I mean you killed three of them back in the forest."

"I don't hate humans; I simply don't trust them to not harm my people." He said shortly before turning to Kallian "And what of you?" he asked, clearly changing the subject "What was your family like?"

The first barrier between the new allies broken, the three of them followed Duncan along the path to Ostagar and their shared fate as grey wardens.

oOo

"So, I'm curious; when were you going to tell the rest of us that you were a mage?" drawled Alistair as he approached Elisa several hours after the battle. After Elisa had killed the general the darkspawn had been unable to effectively counter the army's tactics, turning the battle into a several hour long mop up. Once the last of the darkspawn had been fled Alistair and the other grey wardens had pulled aside to form a conference and Elisa, Solona and Neira had gotten the chance to rest up before facing what came next.

"Once the Warden-Commander showed up or just before the ritual" Elisa answered "I wanted as much time to prove myself before giving the wardens a reason for not accepting me" she grinned wirily "also I'm so used to hiding it that I needed time before revealing who I was to a bunch of people I did not know."

"Well in that case I gotta say that there are easier to impress us; I think at this point they'd take you if you were a maleficar who'd just murdered the queen." Alistair joked

"Well it's good to know that my skills are valued." Quipped Elisa "Come on, I'm going to go find the others"

"Ok, just out a curiosity, who knew?"

"My sister, parents, the court mage who taught me the basics. Neira guessed on the way here and Solona noticed something about Blood's nature that gave me away. Other than that no one, I was very good at hiding, even from those who are trained to spot mages without them casting a spell."

"Ok, one last thing; why are did you decide to pick up those swords that the general was using?"

Elisa drew the twin blades from the crossing sheathes that she had placed them in across her back, under Blood's harness "Silence and Loss? They conduct magic as well Blood does and they're too powerful to be left in the hands of the darkspawn, besides I like them"

Alistair raised his eyebrows "You named them Silence and Loss? Cheery"

"These blades are as old as the darkspawn and have the power to show for it. These swords were named long before either of us was alive; I'm only repeating what they told me."

Alistair nodded and headed over to one of the other grey wardens, apparently to inquire about the Master at arms' funeral arrangements

Elisa waved at Neira as she approached "So, I hear the wardens know your secret" Neira grinned "Or think they do" she added jokingly "Little do they know what dark secrets you really hide."

"Look who's talking" Elisa shot back laughing "It's a good thing the wardens are so open minded, even the Dalish would have been hesitant to take you."

"At least they would have thought about it; you they would have shot on sight"

"Nah, they would have tried to but I'd have shown them the errors of their ways and they would have been building a shrine in my honour before they day was out."

"Only if you used blood magic"

The two continued their lighthearted banter as they walked through the camp, trying to keep their minds off the worry that the warden's secretiveness about the ritual had given them.

Later that night they stood beside Solona as Alistair spoke the words: "Join us brothers and sisters. Join us as we stand vigilant against the blight. Join us and know that if you should fall, one day we to will join you." One by one they drank from the cup, taking the taint into their bodies; one by one the taint drove them into unconscious, where they dreamed of the Archdemon's cry, rallying the darkspawn. And one by one they woke, helped to their feet by their new brothers and sisters in arms.

From this moment forth, they were grey wardens.

**A/N And with this chapter we mark the first of what will be many times my characters decide to run off and do something quite different from what I'd wanted them to do; I'd originally meant for the battle to be a small skirmish that prevented Elisa, Neira and Solona from sitting on their asses for the next two days before Duran and Natia got to Ostagar and for them to have some darkspawn stories to share with those two when they got here. Instead it turned into a major battle that included the revelation that Elisa is a mage and a serious fight scene that I had originally intended to have as a reason that Elisa was unable to save Cailan and Duncan. So I'll have to come up with something else for that. Oh well I'll deal.**

**Also, you may have noticed that neither Daveth nor Ser Jory have appeared, the reason for this is I'm trying to limit the amount of wardens that Ferelden has to less than twenty (they've only had about twenty years to rebuild and they've lost a few along the way) and I had no way to recruit them without adding more wardens, something I didn't want to do. As a result neither of them was recruited in this story.**

**Thirdly, going back to the "My characters doing things I didn't plan for" thing I realized that I never gave the Master at arms a name and feel bad about it because he had a far bigger part than I had intended. So I've decided that his name is... Bruce macCom. There, I don't feel so guilty now.**

**Anyways as always please R&R, constructive criticism is always welcome, thanks**


	6. Chapter 3

Duran slammed his new greatsword into the shield of the warden that was testing him, knocking him off balance and allowing Natia to slip under his guard and place a dagger between his ribs. The warden stepped back and joined his comrades in the "dead" group, normally wardens were tested alone and they both had been but the Warden's Second, an old warrior who went by the nickname Scar, had suggested that they also be tried together; a choice that allowed them to show how well they worked together, alone they were able to hold their own against one or two of the wardens; together they had managed to take apart five, having just beaten the last of the group. The fight had taken awhile but the two fought well together and had managed to take them all down. As Duran moved to walk away a women spoke from behind him "One last test"

Duran turned to see a blond woman in medium armor carrying a bladed staff of some sort; she carried herself well and had two swords across her back in addition to the staff. She looked formidable but Duran was suspicious; after he and Natia beat five grey wardens they sent one girl? Seeing his look of incredulity and a similar, albeit more suspicious look on Natia's face she grinned "Wondering if it's a trap?" She asked and raised her weapon "Only one way to find out." Duran looked at Natia and she nodded: she would watch his back while he engaged the girl and look for an opportunity.

"Are you even a grey warden?" he asked as he assessed her, looking for a weak point in her stance and trying to figure out how she would use that weapon of hers.

"As of last night" she replied "I wouldn't get cocky however; you're a grey warden as of tomorrow night"

"Fair enough" Duran sheathed his greatsword and switched to the longsword and shield he was carrying; if she had any speed whatsoever, trying to take her out with a greatsword would be suicide. He noticed Natia had placed herself behind the girl. She nodded and he charged.

Much to his surprise however, instead of countering his attack like he thought she would, leaving her open to a blade in the back; the girl dodged his sword and ducked within range, she grabbed his sword arm and used his momentum to throw him into Natia, who had been sneaking up behind her. Duran quickly rolled off Natia and to his feet, allowing her to recover not a moment too soon; the girl's blade buried itself in the dirt where Natia's chest had been not a second after she had rolled away. Seeing the vulnerability Duran charged, drawing her attention while Natia went for her legs. Again the girl surprised him; instead of taking her weapon out of the ground she pressed it further in and stepped away, blocking Natia's attack and leaving her off balance. For all intents and purposes ignoring Duran she drew one of her swords and placed the tip on Natia's back before rolling away from his charge. As Duran turned to face her he saw that she was just in front of his shield. In an attempt to exploit the apparent mistake Duran lashed out with his shield, hoping to bash her; the girl quickly stepped out of the way and pressed her blade against the back of his shield, overbalancing him. As he attempted to recover Duran felt and edge of cold steel on the back of his neck "Yield" she said.

"I yield" Duran replied "By the stone, human you're not a fighter, you're death's personal herald"

The girl smiled "Aren't you glad I'm on your side then?" She sheathed her weapons and held out her hand

"I'll thank the ancestors everyday" Duran replied and took her hand "I'm Duran"

"I know, I'm Elisa"

"I'm Natia" his friend groaned from the floor "and I would like to know who the fuck taught you to fight like that."

"No one, everyone" Elisa walked over to Natia and helped her up before picking up her weapon – Duran didn't know what else to call it – and clipping it into a harness on her back "I've studied combat with a number of different teachers over the years and just developed my own fighting style" she explained "I eventually wound up designing Blood because I couldn't decide what weapon to use" she indicated the weapon she had clipped to her back "since then I've gone further and further away from traditional combat styles, or any real style at all really."

"It suits you well" Duran admitted "we took out five wardens and you took us out in less than two minutes"

"Don't feel bad, I did the same thing to seven wardens on my first day here" Elisa said "come on, I'll introduce you to the others"

oOo

Over the next day the three newest wardens and the recruits got to know each other and the other wardens better. Neira and Solona were both mages who had fled the circle after being accused of blood magic; this was no surprise to the dwarves as both looked the part, what was a surprise was the revelation that Elisa was a mage as well, a revelation that caused to Natia to thank every ancestor she knew that the girl was on their side. The three wardens in turn were horrified by Orzammar's treatment of the casteless and by Bhelen's betrayal of his brother. The time also gave Duran and Natia a chance to practice fighting mages and to have several rematches with Elisa, giving Duran a chance to practice the use of different two-handed and weapon and shield stances; both of which he had considerable training in; Natia used these opportunities to work on different sneak approaches and dirty tactics. Despite all this Elisa emerged victorious after all sparing matches.

When Duncan and the other recruits arrived, the dwarves joined Alistair and the other recruits in the wilds to complete their task.

oOo

"We're almost there, recruits" Duncan informed the tired group as they headed into the last stretch on their journey to Ostagar. Chuckling at the chorus of "thank the Maker/Creators" (Creators being Theron's contribution) from the weary trio; Duncan had held a painfully fast pace in order for them to make it to Ostagar in time for the battle and even through none of them was a stranger to exhaustion, the mix of little sleep and fast walking had them all exhausted, Only George, Alice's mabari had any strength left.

Truthfully, however all three of them found themselves walking a little taller as they approached Ostagar; they walked faster and with more confidence. It was something about the legends of the grey wardens that they had all heard so much of as children; that now as they walked toward the army that had been gathered at the recommendation of the order they were to belong to; the order whose legends were some of the greatest in all of Thedas, that gave them pride and the strength to act like they had imagined heroes acting all those years ago as children.

At the same time however they felt silly and tried to squash the pride they felt; they haven't done anything, they weren't heroes.

Not yet anyways.

Incidentally they all found it quite difficult to squish undeserved feelings of pride when the king himself came to greet them. After exchanging pleasantries with Duncan he turned to each of the recruits in turn. After receiving a rude reply from Theron and a neutral one from Kallian he turned to face Alice; "You're Elisa's sister aren't you? I don't believe we've had the pleasure." He took her hand as she held it out to shake his "I promise that once this is done I will do everything in my power to liberate Highever and deal with that snake Howe"

"Thank you your majesty" Alice replied

"Now I have to go let Loghain regale me with tactics again and I'm sure you'll want to see your sister." Cailan said

"My Sister?" Alice gasped "But I thought Elisa was killed at Highever."

"No, she apparently managed to escape and made her way here, where she joined the grey wardens. She was inducted into the order two days ago and played a major role in the battle we had three days ago."

"Th-thank you for telling me, your majesty, I greatly appreciate it." Alice bowed at the king as he left.

Duncan turned to face her "I'm glad to see your sister has survived but we must still proceed with the joining ritual without delay. Thankfully however there is some time so you may rest and speak with your sister; she will most likely be at the warden's tent. You two" he turned to the other two "may explore the camp if you wish, when you are ready seek out Alistair, Elisa will be able to tell you where to find him."

Alice got directions to the tent and almost bolted for it, when she got there she saw Elisa talking and laughing with two girls, one human, and one elvish. She called out "Elisa!" before running into her sisters arms and bursting into tears. "There, there" her sister soothed "it's all right, I'm all right"

"I thought you were dead" cried Alice "How did you make it out alive?"

Elisa flashed her sister a grin that had always made Alice think that Elisa could get out of any situation in one piece; an assumption that had yet to be proven false. "An even mix of my incredible skill" She opened her hand and let the magic fill it "And magic"

Alice looked to the two girls beside them "So your secret's out?"

"This one, yeah; well to the grey wardens at least. I had a hard fight with a darkspawn general and had to use magic to survive; I killed the thing tho, and turned the tide of the battle." Elisa explained "by the way these are my fellow grey wardens; Solona and Neira, they were recruited and inducted at the same time I was." She added, indicating the human and elf, respectively.

"Pleased to meet you" Alice said and the two responded in kind. Wanting to forget the grief she had felt in believing that her sister was dead, Alice turned the topic to a more casual note and talked with the three wardens until it was time for her to go into the wilds with the others.

Reuniting with Kallian and Theron as well as being introduced to Alistair and the two dwarf recruits; the recruits went off into the wilds on the mission that would end with them becoming grey wardens or death.

**A/N can't say i'm too happy with how this chapter turned out but it was necessary and I couldn't think of how to improve it.**

**Anyways Please R&R, thanks**


	7. Chapter 4

Once in the wilds, the group fanned out; Theron took scout, as he was most familiar with the wilds. Kallian and Alice were on the edge of the group, keeping an eye out for any surprises that Theron may have missed; leaving Duran, Natia and Alistair at the core, ready to join battle if – when they encountered darkspawn. The first time they encountered darkspawn it was only a small group; three hurlocks. Alice and Kallian snuck up behind them while and stabbed one apiece while Theron shot the third, they saw no reason to alert the others. From these corpses they collected the darkspawn blood that Duncan had requested and continued on their way.

The second group they encountered was far worse. A group of darkspawn lead by a mage had littered a bridge with traps and sat on the other side, armed with bows and magic. Unfortunately they were blocking the path to the old warden fortress and there was no way to get behind them; forcing the group to attack head on.

Theron took the high ground with his bow and began to shoot the darkspawn from across the river, luckily his first victim was the emissary; without him the darkspawn were merely dangerous, not overwhelming. Alistair and Duran lead the charge, using their shields to block the darkspawn's barrage while Natia, Kallian and Alice moved behind them, marking traps so that the two warriors would be able to evade them.

Once across the five split in two groups; Duran and Natia moved to attack the darkspawn on their left flank while Alistair, Kallian and Alice struck the group on their right. Theron had abandoned his hill and was advancing across the bridge, shooting any darkspawn that looked to attack his friends from behind through the middle that they had cleaved through darkspawn.

The darkspawn were still formidable despite the skill of the group; the battle lasted for a good five minutes and was made harder by the fact that the sounds of battle soon attracted a second group that had been farther up the hill, led by a hurlock alpha. Upon seeing the second group Alistair broke off and went to engage while Theron kept most of the other darkspawn off him. Around this point Kallian and Alice finished off the last of their group and went to reinforce Alistair; however they were intercepted by a group of five genlocks that had been in a pass off to the side. Alice broke off to deal with them and sent Kallian off to help Alistair. Alice quickly stepped out of the way of the blades the first genlock attempted to impale her on before plunging a dagger into his eye; she parried an attack from the second genlock and drew a dagger that she flicked into the throat of the third. Dodging away from the fourth's attempt to plunge a dagger into her back she reversed her sword and shoved it into the gut of third genlock; she dropped her sword and drew her last two daggers, throwing them into the throats of the last two genlocks.

Meanwhile Natia and Duran were finishing the last of their darkspawn and moved to help Alistair and Kallian. Working in the tandem that had become second nature to the two dwarves since their exile from Orzammar they moved to engage the second group of darkspawn; as a number of darkspawn broke off to engage them Duran let loose a mighty war cry that drew the attention of the darkspawn while Natia slid into the shadows, waiting for the opportune moment to attack. At the same time Alistair was having difficulty fighting the Alpha; normally he would have had no trouble but he was not only dealing with the alpha but the other darkspawn as well, even with Theron and Kallian's aid he was still forced to fight several of the creatures at once and was slowly faltering. The tide of the battle was turned when Kallian snuck up behind the alpha, slitting his throat; her maneuver was successful but one of the other hurlocks turned and plunged his sword into her leg. Alistair decapitated the darkspawn and Theron shot a hurlock that turned to finish the job, allowing Kallian to fall back with Alice's aid; leaving Alistair to face the remaining four darkspawn.

Two came toward him at once; Alistair avoided the swing of the first, giving Theron a clear shot – which he quickly took – and blocking the swing of the second with his shield and plunging his blade into the creature's gut. The third came towards him with a wild swing, making the fatal mistake of making a good target for Theron and allowing Alistair to kill the last darkspawn with a simple parry and stab sequence.

Alistair turned to the two dwarves to see Duran drive his blade into the stomach of one of the last two darkspawn and watch Natia cut the hamstring, then throat of the other. Nodding he relaxed and turned to where Alice was bandaging Kallian's leg. "How is she?" he asked, worried for the elven girl.

"She's ok for now" Alice replied, not looking up from Kallian's wound "But the blade had some blood other than hers on it, she may have contracted the taint"

"Well it's a good thing that she'll become a grey warden tonight" Alistair said "Come on, the records are just at the top of that hill."

"Let's get going then" Kallian said, standing and snarling at Alice when her friend slipped her arm around Kallian's back; taking the weight of her wounded leg "I can walk on my own you know"

"And now you can walk faster" Alice quipped and Kallian sighed, knowing this was an argument that she could not win and despite her protests she was not sure she wanted to, this was… Nice.

They ascended to the old fortress. As they entered the crumbling building Alice notice Theron looked at something with a weird expression on his face before shaking his head and turning away. Following his line of sight she noticed a strangely large crow with piercing, almost intelligent eyes.

She turned to Alistair as he went to an old chest in the far corner of the room and lifted the lid of the chest to find the contents… gone.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" A scantily clad woman stepped into the fortress through a hole that time and weather had left in it. "A group of scavengers perhaps? Picking over what others have left behind in their attempt to avoid the blight? Or merely intruders?" the woman continued "I have followed you through my wilds for some time now. Where do they go? I wondered, why are they here? And now you disturb ashes that now have touched for so long." The woman's voice turned sharp "What say you? Scavenger or intruder?"

Alice raised her eyebrows "Your wilds?" she asked "does turning into a crow make somehow make these _your _wilds?" smiling to herself as the woman took a step back in surprise. Theron muttered "Asha'bellanar" under his breath

She was taken aback but quickly recovered herself "you are sharp indeed, how did you spot me?"

Alice simply smiled, growing up with an apostate who could only practice magic on her had made her very good at spotting the edge of abnormality that all magic left. But this women did not need to know that, until they knew she would not attack it was better that she thought it was some sort of spell or Templar ability; it might make her more cautious.

Pretending that her request had never been rebuffed the woman strode to the front of the group "what you seek is here no longer" she called out dramatically, probably looking to regain herself after being shot down by Alice.

"Here no longer? You stole them." Accused Alistair "You're some sort of sneaky witch thief"

"How does one steal from dead men?"

"Quite easily it seems. Those documents are grey warden property and I demand you return them"

"I will not, for t'was not I who removed them. Invoke a name that means nothing here but it will not get you any further"

"Who did take them?" Theron interjected.

"T'was my mother, in fact"

"Can you take us to her?" Theron asked

"Now there is a sensible request" the witch ran her eyes over the Dalish elf, smiling slightly "I like you" she declared

"Careful" Alistair cautioned "first it's 'I like you' and then zap! Frog time"

Ignoring him, Theron turned to the witch and said "I am Theron; it is a pleasure to meet you"

"Now there is a proper sensible greeting, you may call me Morrigan."

"Come" Morrigan said as she turned down a small path "I will take you to my mother."

oOo

The group followed Morrigan to where she claimed her mother was, originally Alice had wanted to take Kallian back to Ostagar to get her some medical treatment but Alistair vetoed the idea, arguing that if they ran into trouble Alice would be hard-pressed to defend herself and Kallian. Alice had argued briefly but Morrigan settled the argument by adding a poultice that she said would help heal the wound and slow the taint.

Upon reaching the hut where Morrigan and her mother lived the group was greeted by an old woman with shoulder-length grey hair and old robes. Theron bowed to her said "Asha'bellanar, greetings"

The women looked him over "One of the people" she said she turned to see Kallian and Alice "A city elf, supported by a human, what a nice change of scenery" she laughed before turning to Duran and Natia "A male dwarf noble and a female casteless; common, yet not" last she looked at Alistair "And the one who knows what is to come. Tell me young warden" she inquired "Do you fear what happens next? Do you feel guilty that you have not warned these young heroes what they face?"

Alistair visibly paled "I accepted that I would not like everything I was told to do when I joined the wardens but I stand by my choices."

"You avoided the question, with cunning I might add." The woman laughed "And here I feared you might not be ready for what will be expected of you, but you are no simple warrior. You are almost there I might add, your wife''s sister will finish the job"

Alistair frowned "I am not married, old woman"

"Not yet." The woman waved him off "But enough of this! Here are your treaties, your precious enchantment wore of long ago, I have protected them."

"You protected them?" Alistair seemed taken aback "Oh, thank you"

"And why not?" the woman asked "here take them" she handed them to Theron "tell your wardens that this blight's threat is greater than they realize"

"Thank you for returning them Asha'bellanar" Theron replied, bowing again.

"Such manners, always in the last place you look, like stockings" the old woman laughed "oh, don't mind me" she waved a hand, still laughing "go on"

"Time for you to go" Morrigan said, stepping in

"Oh don't be so rude" her mother admonished "these are your guests, see them out of the wilds"

"Very well" Morrigan sighed "follow me."

oOo

Once back at the camp they were greeted by Duncan, Elisa and the two mages. Upon seeing Kallian's wound Neira placed her hand on it, healing magic leaving behind only the smallest of scars. "Unfortunately I can do nothing for the taint I can sense in your blood" she said "If you weren't about to become a warden I'd offer you a quick death"

Theron frowned "My keeper managed to push back the taint when I contracted it" he said "Do you not have a spell for that?"

Neira shook her head "I don't know anything of the sort." She said before looking up at Duncan "do the grey wardens have any such magic?"

"We have a potion that will make a person more resistant to taint" he said "as well as a spell that will slow or even push back the taints progress, unfortunately there is no cure."

Elisa shrugged "still useful, can you teach us?"

Duran nodded "The potion would allow us to take a non-warden with us, the spell would allow us to get a recruit to the joining or prolong a valuable ally's life; even set them up to make a last stand as the rest of us escape"

"We could even sabotage the potion to make a recruit more willing to join, or make a soldier willing to sacrifice his life" Natia added, making Duran and Elisa nod. Alistair and Alice looked unnerved by the suggestion and Kallian and the mages showed no reaction at all.

Duncan nodded as well "be warned" he added "that should such a ruse be discovered it would hurt our reputation"

"Are you advising against it?" Elisa asked

"Merely suggesting you exercise caution and do not use that trick too often. I actually had intended to give you three the formula and spell today and got called off by the king; as such I have them on me." Duncan handed a copy of the spell and formula to Solona and Neira and a copy of the spell to Elisa. "Back to the matter at hand" he continued "I have had the mages preparing for the joining"

"Now will you tell us what this is all about?" asked Natia, Alice agreed and glared at her sister, who had refused to tell them what they faced.

"I will not lie" Duncan seemed weary "we grey wardens pay a heavy price for what we become, fate may decree that you pay the price now rather than later"

"You're saying the joining can kill us?" Alice asked, frowning

Duran shrugged "Makes sense that they would keep it a secret then." Making Natia nod

Alice sighed "I wish I could say I would do different but seeing those monsters makes me agree with that"

Duncan raised his hand to indicate where they were to go "If you are all ready then let us proceed"

The Joining was awful, terrifying and ravaging. It drove each one of them into the darkness where they found the Archdemon waiting at the heart of their darkest nightmares. When asked later Elisa and Neira would both admit to the new wardens that they had felt the Archdemon trying to end the lives of those who took the Joining. It feared them, they said. Why, they did not know as they had had no time to ask the other wardens but both mages, unusually sensitive to the flow and intent of magic knew without a doubt that during a blight the Archdemon would seek to kill any who took the taint into their blood.

Which made it an even greater miracle that all had survived. Every last one of them had managed to survive the taint's effects on their body and the Archdemon's attempt on their lives. Duncan and Alistair were both surprised, even though they had attempted to hide it.

As they recovered, Duncan bade Duran, Elisa, Alice and Neira to accompany him to a final meeting with the king before the battle. Cailan was as blindly optimistic as ever and offered his congratulations to the new grey wardens before returning to the battle strategy with Loghain. "So the army with me is to provoke the darkspawn and draw them into a charge…" he trailed off

"And then the signal will be lit" Loghain offered

"Now I remember" Cailan said "And then you will lead a flanking charge and hit them from the rear. But who will light the beacon?" he asked

"It is a small but important task; I have a few men stationed there"

"If it is so important" Cailan said "then we should send out best; let the wardens Alice and Alistair be the ones to light the beacon"

Loghain protested "My lord, you rely on these grey wardens too much, that you persist in this foo notion-"

"It is not a fool notion, and you will remember who is king" Cailan cut him off "Alice and Alistair will light the beacon and that is final"

"Very well your majesty" Loghain said, a look on his face made Duran, Elisa and Alice all shiver; accustomed to politics they all knew what happened when a man had _that _look on his face.

Back at Duncan's fire they met with the other new wardens; all the senior wardens save Alistair had already gone to join the army. Alistair had been on his way there to join them when a messenger had redirected him here. He did not take the news well.

"You mean I won't be in the battle?" he asked "I'm sorry but having two grey wardens holding the torch is a bit ridiculous"

Duncan's voice was one of tired patience "Alistair, wardens do what they must. If having two wardens light a beacon ensures the king's continued support than two wardens will be up on that tower, holding the torch"

"Fine" Alistair growled "But it the king wants me to put on a pink dress and shimmy across the battle line, that's where I draw the line."

"I don't know" Alice grinned "It might be a good distraction"

"Me shimmying across the darkspawn line? Sure we can kill them all while they roll on the floor laughing"

Duncan's sigh as he realized he had not one but two wise-ass wardens was one of resignation.

"The rest of you, I want in the battle. Neira and Solona, instead of having you with the mages as you were last time, I want you with the rest of us; as you saw in the last battle, once battle is joined wardens often work as death squads, seeding chaos deep in the darkspawn ranks. Such tactics are dangerous and it would be beneficial to have you with us, healing us and keeping the darkspawn from overwhelming us."

Both nodded but Duran pointed at an issue with this plan "But aren't mages vulnerable to direct attacks?" he asked "isn't having them up on the front lines a little too risky?"

"You have a fair point" Duncan acknowledged "which is why I am assigning you and Natia to protect Neira and Kallian and Theron to protect Solona, keep them safe and unreachable by the darkspawn. Elisa" he said, turning to her "you have proven just how dangerous you are at the front of an attack and I would like you to stay there, try to take out the more dangerous darkspawn if you can and hold nothing back. Your status as an apostate makes me unsure as to what sort of spells you have but the other wardens have told me you use your magic very effectively in the midst of combat and have abilities that they have never seen before; I remind you that as a grey warden there is no limitation on what spells you can do so if you know any forbidden magic, feel free to use it."

Elisa raised an eyebrow "Are you encouraging me to use blood magic?"

"Only if you know it" he turned to address the whole group again "In the interest of safety I would advise that all of you stick together when possible, keep together and with the other wardens; I would not like to lose so many skilled recruits in their first battle." With that he led them to where the other wardens were preparing alongside king Cailan and his guards, who would be fighting alongside them

An hour later they were standing at the front of an army across from a darkspawn army as Alice and Alistair prepared to cross the bridge with George following faithfully at Alice's heels. On the battlefield King Cailan faced the now charging darkspawn and let out a powerful cry "For Ferelden!" he called as the army charged to meet the darkspawn horde.

The battle had begun.

**A/N And here I was thinking this would be a nice short chapter. Anyways, now that we've introduced all the characters I thought I'd give a quick rundown on their basic personalities and skills in case I wasn't too clear on that (description is not one of my strong suits).**

** Theron is an archer, through and through however, I'm not so sure what class he his yet; his skill as a hunter makes him good at stealth and moving silently but he's more of a warrior who just happens to be sneaky than a true rogue, he doesn't use poisons or any other form of tricky combat, if anyone gets too close to him he'll hit them with his bow or stab them with a knife or arrow but he won't fight dirty, the exception would be the after mentioned stealth. He's a strong forceful character who strongly believes in honesty and preserving his culture, at the same time however he is not against deception if it will further his cause (When I wrote his part in chapter 2 I was hearing Javik from ME3 if that helps). I put his age at about 24, making him the oldest person in the group.**

**Duran is a skilled warrior that is exceptional in the use of both sword and shield and two-handed weapon play and will most often carry both, strapping his greatsword and shield to his back and keeping his sword on his belt. While he does not use deception in battle he appreciates its use and will readily act as a target in order to distract his opponents from someone behind them. He is skilled in politics and deception from spending his youth in Orzammar and is good at reading people. He is ruthless and cunning and will not hesitate to bribe and dishonor his opponents if he can safely do so; however he places strong value on family and kinship, which is why Bhelen managed to trap him in Orzammar. He is about 19 years old.**

**Natia is a clever rogue who prefers the use of daggers but appreciates the use of a good sword. She often places poison on her daggers and will use an assortment of acids and explosives that she keeps on her person. As she has proven already she is extremely skilled at stealth and will disappear into the shadows the second you take your eyes off her. She holds no stock in honour and will do whatever is necessary to accomplish her goal. Her life on the street has given her a good idea on when someone is about to attack however she cannot determine intentions beyond that and has little skill in politics. She is about 17 years old**

**Kallian is a dangerous thief who can move about undetected almost anywhere; she can pick almost any lock and is a master at avoiding notice. Once discovered however, she is an exceptionally dangerous knife wielder that will use her speed to prevent her attackers from ever touching her and will use attacks that designed to weaken and bleed her enemies out. She has, on occasion use torture to get information out of people or punish those that she feels need to suffer more than a quick death; however since she always kills those she harms she only uses torture to protect those close to her and never for personal gain. She is skilled with poisons and will not only use them on her blade but also will put them in a targets food or drink if she has the opportunity. She is about 18 years of age**

**Alice is a very talented rogue who uses a combination of sword and dagger, she dislikes the use of poisons on her blades but has no qualms about slipping them into someone's food or drink if she thinks it will give her an edge. While she as some skill at stealth her true mastery is disguise; she can alter her posture to make her appear as anything from a high-born lady to the lowest servant, a skill that encouraged the upper servants at Highever to be kinder to their subordinates, as she practiced often there. She is extremely skilled at reading people and analyzing politics as well as being very persuasive, able to talk someone into almost anything that they would be willing to do. While she has no true magic she can spot its use very easily, it is possible that this may be magical in itself but is not enough for even the strictest Templar to call her a mage. She is 22 years old.**

**Neira is a powerful and forceful mage that wields her power with extreme skill and precision. As a dreamer she has a unique connection to the fade that makes her an unmatched spirit healer, however, this same skill makes her unmatched in the schools of spirit and entropy as well as making her able to find anyone that she has ever healed if they are in the fade. Her spells are devastating and capable of exterminating her opponents in large groups, but drain her mana quickly; making her dependant of lyrium potions for longer battles. She has a strong sense of justice and will torment the dreams of those she feels deserving. She has a low opinion of honour as she feels it allows dishonourable people to kill them. She is also a free spirit for whom growing up in the tower where she was seen as evil by those who were sent to guard her has made her rather dismissive of social norms and will act as such. She is 18 years old**

**Solona, while still a powerful mage, is much weaker than her friend and sometimes finds herself overshadowed by her. However she is still peerless against anyone besides Neira and as a result the two often stick together. She has an unmatched endurance and can cast spells for hours without draining herself, making her able to outlast anyone but Neira who can break through any defenses she has and defeat her quickly. She values offensive magic but also focuses of defensive spells, keeping her opponents away from her and her allies as well as healing small injuries in the middle of battle. This attitude is reflected by how she presents herself as a soft spoken and kind person who will aid those in need, however at her core she is quite ruthless and is capable of acting quickly and brutally if the need arises and her only issue with immoral behaviour is getting caught. She is 17 years old**

**While none of the group is by any means easy to kill Elisa is easily the most dangerous of the group. An expert on almost any weapon ever used, she has travelled all over Thedas, learning new and better weapon tactics and strategy. Her widespread master means that while she prefers to use her weapon Blood or the swords she took from the darkspawn general, Silence and Loss, she has no problem with turning her enemies weapons on them and has the mentality that if her attackers are armed then she might as well be. Her design of Blood has attracted the attention of a number of smiths and weapon masters, who were curious about its design and uses. Her travel has also given her a wide range of cultural experience and she is able to speak a number of different languages. On top of her weapon skills she is also a powerful mage who can use spells in the middle of combat without so much as slowing her fighting. While she has never had any training from a mage she shows skill and discipline that would make the most studious of circle mages envious, her sister has suggested that this may be a result of the discipline and inventiveness that her mastery of traditional combat demanded. Her most surprising ability is that years of combat training has caused her to develop the skills of an arcane warrior without ever even reading of such a thing. She is ruthless and cunning and is virtually unstoppable once she has fixated on a goal. Her extensive training allows her to understand where each person would be most formidable, in battle and without. She also carries an aura of power that all but the least observant of people notice, making it impossible for her to blend in like her sister can. Despite her revelation that she is a mage Duncan suspects that she still harbors secrets but is content to let the situation lie provided that she continues to use the extent of her abilities to serve the wardens. Like her twin she is 22 years old**

**Another thing that took longer than expected, anyways please R&R**


	8. Chapter 5

**A/N looking over the previous chapters I wrote I realized that I've made Elisa way to powerful and have only barely hinted at an explanation outside of the really pathetic "She just is" one. So let me assure you, there is more to Elisa than meets the eye and there is a credible explanation as to how she got this way. Also the darkspawn are way more dangerous in this story than in the game and will function to balance out the sheer power of the characters, which frankly they'll need.**

_The demon almost laughed at how easy it had been to convince the child to agree to his deal. The foolish creature had actually believed his ruse. How arrogant was the child to believe that she had found a previously unknown neutral spirit and that it took an interest in the knowledge it had to offer. Foolish child. The demon reached out to put its thumb on the child's forehead, taking its mind and gaining passage to the mortal realm._

__oOo

The battle was brutal.

The darkspawn had almost doubled in number from the last time they had assembled on this battlefield, if Elisa had not destroyed the general when she did in the last battle then they simply would not have had enough men to defeat the darkspawn, sound tactics or no.

Elisa kept slightly ahead of the other new wardens, dealing death to all she faced. She was not using Blood, instead finding Silence and Loss to be better suited for this part of combat. One thing that had changed was that since she was no longer concealing that she was a mage she could unleash her abilities to the maximum; shrouding herself in the fade and wrapping herself in powerful shields that would protect her from all but the most brutal attacks she was able to fight surrounded by darkspawn with no fear that they might overwhelm her.

The new wardens, while not as singularly as formidable as Elisa, together found that they matched her. With skill born of instinct they fought; Natia and Kallian taking apart any remotely dangerous opponents, Duran drawing the battle to him as he dealt devastating blows with his greatsword, Theron taking out anyone who came near either mage and Neira and Solona making entire groups of darkspawn disappear in storms of fire and ice with a wave of their hand.

oOo

Alistair, Alice and George ran across the bridge just as the battle began. Already the battle was raging and the three were knocked down by a fireball one of the emissaries had managed to land by a ballista. As they ran across towards the tower they were greeted by a guard and a mage. "Darkspawn came up from below" the guard cried out "the tower is under attack!"

"Shit!" Alistair swore "Go get help!" he ordered "you" he pointed at the mage "You're with us!"

As the guard ran off the four of them headed for the tower. Near the entrance, some of the darkspawn had already made it outside and were fighting the scattered guards. They saved what few soldiers were left and pushed the darkspawn back into the tower. Leaving the soldiers to guard the door and prevent any darkspawn from easily attacking the ballista they entered the tower.

oOo

Elisa charged to meet the ogre; the creature seemed surprised to see anyone charge to meet it and hesitated slightly before lowering its head and meeting her charge. Just before they would have collided Elisa went down on her knees and slid across the blood soaked grass; she leaned back to avoid the ogre's head and slid between its legs, bringing Silence across one thigh and Loss across the other, severing both of the creatures femoral arteries. The monster looked almost surprised at the sudden disappearance of its prey and how its blood was draining out onto the grass, the creature swayed for a moment and went to fall on a group of soldiers; reaching out with her magic Elisa telekinetically grabbed the creature and changed the path of its fall to land on a group of darkspawn. Going from facing certain death to seeing their enemies crushed by their own ally the soldiers cheered briefly before engaging another group of darkspawn.

Turning to see an emissary raise its hands to cast what she sensed to be a devastating spell Elisa quickly analysed the situation; there was no one else around and even with an open path she would not be able to get to the creature in time to stop the spell, nor was she sure any spell she cast would get through the creature's shields. Making a split decision she threw Silence at the creature. The blade spun through the air and landed in the chest of the monster, killing it.

Not far from where she was Elisa saw an ogre bearing down a wounded warden; Elisa began to sprint towards the ogre, if she could reach the ogre before it got to the warden she could kill it and hopefully get the warden back on his feet. She successfully reached the ogre with little issue, a hurlock was now wearing one of her daggers in its neck but nothing had really slowed her; upon reaching the charging creature she went down on her knees as she had with the last one but instead of trying to find out where its target had gone this one grabbed her in one of its large fists. As it righted itself the creature brought its fist close to its face; only for a brief moment but it was all Elisa needed. She plunged Loss into the ogre's eye and rolled to a kneeling position next to the wounded warden, whose attempt to stand had resulted in him falling over completely. As she went to heal the leg wound that he had suffered a hurlock charged towards them sword raised. Elisa noticed the creature and grimaced; she could go intangible but the warden would surely be killed. As the monster began to make its swing Elisa caught the sword in her hand.

oOo

Not far from Elisa's position the other wardens were dealing their own brand of devastation. Duran suddenly found both the Hurlock alphas he had been fighting fall over dead as Kallian and Natia moved behind them, cutting the spinal cords then plunging a dagger into the eye. Theron had remained behind to protect Solona and Neira but was drawn off by a particularly ferocious attack that forced him to fall back, leaving Solona and Neira unprotected. The two mages subsequently found themselves facing an ogre on their own; working in tandem the two immediately began casting spells, Neira hexed the creature with vulnerability while Solona froze it with a powerful Ice spell, freezing the creature. Neira then followed up with a spirit cage that she hoped would shatter the monster before the ice wore off, Solona placed her staff on the ground and spun, leaving razor sharp icicles in a semicircle where her staff had been; impaling several charging darkspawn as Neira's spirit cage spell did its job and shattered the ogre.

Realizing what had happened Duran, Kallian and Natia beat a hasty retreat towards Neira and Solona, protecting them from direct attack once again. Neira took the opportunity to take a swig from the one of the numerous canteens of Lyrium potion that she carried in battle while Solona sent a firestorm to eliminate the majority of Theron's attackers, the rest of whom died rather quickly their friends to force the Dalish warrior to fight defensively.

A battle cry drew the group's attention to a darkspawn of remarkable speed and skill, the group members looked at one another briefly; this was clearly one of the darkspawn generals that the wardens had warned them about, they would need to plan this attack carefully if everyone was to survive this fight. Duran took charge and laid out a battle plan, the others acknowledged it and he charged.

As he approached Neira inflicted the creature with horror, while not immobilizing the thing as it would have a normal darkspawn the creature was still slowed, Solona quickly cast a spell that shrouded his weapon in fire, adding to any damage he might inflict. Theron turned away from the group, using his arrows to eliminate any darkspawn that may try to interfere while Kallian and Natia where on either side of Duran but stayed further back, hoping to avoid the creature's notice and get a clear shot.

While weakened by Neira's curse the general was still very powerful; the first blow from the maul the creature used nearly knocked Duran's sword out of his hands, if this lasted longer than a minute he was done for! Natia came up behind him but the creature kicked out at her and she was forced to fall back, hoping to catch him off guard Kallian and Duran struck as one but the general already had regained his balance and elbowed Kallian in the side of the head while parrying Duran's blow. Kallian was knocked to the ground. It resisted Solona's ice spell and the mortality curse that Neira had placed on it before parrying another of Duran's attacks, knocking him off balance. Seeing Duran vulnerable the monster closed in, preparing to finish him; Kallian was still getting to her feet and neither of the mages would be able to cast a spell in time he realized in horror. The general came toward him with its maul raised, ready to finish him when suddenly its leg gave out from under it. Natia plunged her dagger into the back of the neck of the now kneeling general before turning to face it and plunging her other dagger into its eye. Taking her blades from the corpse she followed the recovered Kallian and Duran and they went to regroup with the other three.

oOo

"Maker's breath!" Alistair exclaimed "There wasn't supposed to be any darkspawn here!" there was a lull in the fighting as they climbed the tower and Alistair was using it to vent his confusion.

Alice shrugged "You could tell them they're in the wrong place" she joked.

"Right, because this is just a huge misunderstanding and we'll all laugh about it later" Alistair drawled "At any rate we need to hurry, Loghain is waiting on out signal" The four dashed up the stair but Alice could not shake the memory of Loghain's face during the meeting and found herself wondering if he would charge even if they lit the beacon. She shook her head; Loghain was the hero of Riverdale and unhesitatingly loyal to Ferelden, he would never betray his king.

Right?

Alice pushed the thought to the side; this was not a time to consider Loghain's loyalty, even if he was going to betray them there was nothing they could do about it. All they could do was light the beacon and not get killed.

oOo

Knocking down a darkspawn with a pommel strike, allowing Natia to finish it, Duran wondered why the beacon wasn't lit; the darkspawn army had committed at this point and he could of sworn he'd seen them signal the tower so why hadn't the beacon been lit?

A darkspawn bashed him with a shield, cutting his thought short. In a moment of ineptness Duran dropped his greatsword and found himself unready for the darkspawn bearing down on him. He desperately looked around he had his sword on his belt but he doubted that he would be able to get it out in time, and all the others were too far away to get to him in time. There needed to be something – there! Duran spotted a dragonbone sword impaled in a darkspawn emissary next to him; ripping it out of the corpse he parried the hurlock's attack and finished him off before looking at the sword – it seemed familiar…

A hand presented him with his greatsword and asked "Trade?" Duran looked up to see Elisa. He took his greatsword and handed her her blade, which she placed in its sheath on her back, she was wielding Blood he noticed. "I figured I join up with you guys" she explained in between eliminating a group of darkspawn.

Duran nodded and moved to engage another group of attackers before nodding to where the other new wardens were "let's regroup then." Just as they reached the others the beacon finally lit. A cheer rose out from the men, who believed that the darkspawn would be crushed between them and Loghain's forces behind them.

But the charge never came.

oOo

As Alice and Alistair dashed up the top of the tower, followed by George and the mage, they were greeted by the sight of an ogre. The creature roared at them and charged. They immediately dodged to the side and got out of the ogre's path; seizing the opportunity Alice plunged one of her daggers into the creature's back, hoping the sever its spinal cord. While the attack did not work, the monster still roared in pain, thankfully not immune to being stabbed. George dashed up behind the ogre and sunk his teeth into the ogre's left leg. The ogre roared in pain and shook its leg to get the dog off. George held on briefly before the ogre's flesh tore and he went flying off. The ogre dashed towards the mage, who was in the midst of casting a spell and grabbed him, crushing the mage before he could so much as scream. Alistair dashed in from behind, hoping to hamstring the creature but was stopped by a backward kick that sent him flying. Alice dashed in from the front and when the ogre lowered its face to charge she swung her sword across its face, forcing it to real back; taking the opportunity she leapt onto the monster's chest, plunging her sword into its heart. As the ogre fell back it weakly raised its hands in a bid to crush her before it died; Alice yanked her sword out the creature's chest and plunged it into its eye, finishing it.

As she jumped off the creature Alistair and George limped toward her, wounded but very much alive. She spared a glance at the dead mage before focusing at the task at hand; they needed to light the beacon. "We've probably missed the signal already" Alistair said "just light the beacon and hope it's not too late"

Alice complied.

When the beacon lit and the flanking charge didn't come Elisa swore "get out of here!" she ordered the others "we need to get as many people out of here as possible!"

"What about you?" Neira asked, worry evident on her face.

"I'm going to see if I can get the king to safety, without him Loghain can just say whatever!"

"We'll come with you"

"No, if I fail then we'll need every grey warden we've got, rally as many soldiers as you can and get out of here, meet me by the tower if possible, otherwise head for the tent" with that Elisa turned and headed toward the center of the battle, where Duncan and Cailan would be found.

As Elisa went to rescue the King, Duran quickly looked around the battlefield, searching for the quickest way into the wilds and out of the battle. He spotted a path that would lead them near a group of soldiers that had been cut off from the main army and were fighting for their lives. The soldiers were hard pressed and would have surely been overwhelmed quickly if not for the two soldiers leading them; a young woman with short, black hair and a pair of daggers rallied the rest of her squad and dealt with the most dangerous of darkspawn while a similar looking man held off the main mass of darkspawn with powerful swings from his greatsword.

After indicating their path to the rest of his team, Duran lead the group as they cleaved through the horde to rescue the soldiers and escape into the wilds. Solona unleashed devastating elemental storms that decimated the surrounding darkspawn while Neira cast widespread curses that drained the lives of their attackers or trapped them in their own horrors. Theron picked off the few darkspawn powerful enough to break through the mix of curses and storms that two mages had unleashed. Duran lead the group, leading the frontal assault with Kallian and Natia's aid. Once they reached the soldiers Duran called out "With us!"

Grateful for the rescue the soldiers asked no questions simply following the wardens. The woman quickly ordered the majority of the soldiers to guard the mages while she, the young man with the greatsword and a few others who approached them in skill went to aid Duran. Once they reached the safety of the wilds the woman turned to Duran "What do we do now?" she asked

Duran hesitated for a moment and Theron stepped in "The battle is lost" he stated bluntly "You should flee and spread word of your Teyrn's treachery"

The woman frowned and asked "Should we try to reach the king?"

Duran shook his head "Our friend has gone for him, she's good enough that if she reaches him in time he will live and we cannot do anything to help her. After this defeat the horde will quickly exit the wilds; if you have any family near here I would advise that you get them to safety."

The young man beside her gasped "Bethany and Mother!" he grabbed the woman's arm "Sister, we have to warn them!"

The woman tensed "Our Mother and Sister are in Lothering" she explained

Duran nodded, he was not familiar with human settlements but he assumed that was close "Go then and best of luck to you"

The women turned to leave "And you" she said "I'm Marian by the way, this is Carver" indicating her brother

Duran inclined his head and replied "I'm Duran, this is Theron" he waved towards the Dalish elf "may we meet again someday" Turning, the group folded into the wilds, heading for tower and praying that it had not been overwhelmed.

oOo

The darkspawn were everywhere.

Not five minutes after they had lit the beacon, the darkspawn had stormed the top floor of the tower en masse. They had tried to hold them off but were forced into the open area. Catching a arrow in the thigh Alice went down as another pierced her stomach; the last thing she saw was a large bird swooping down to grab her as it all went dark.

oOo

Elisa was the harbinger of death.

There was no other way to describe her as she carved her way through the darkspawn at a run, never slowing her pace even as she dealt death to the darkspawn she faced. She was using every tool in her arsenal as she headed toward the King; she threw would unleash a firestorm to ride ahead of her as she fought through the creatures or would use a sweeping ice spell to eliminate a flanking charge. Her defenses were working overtime, stopping or slowing many a would be fatal strike; other attacks were met with futility as her attackers found that their swings passed straight through her. She looked ahead to discover that she could see both Duncan and the King fighting side by side; as she dashed ahead she was intercepted by a darkspawn general, flanked by two alphas.

Elisa unleashed a wave of fire that pushed the one of the alphas back and turning the other to ash but the general stood against the attack without flinching. She threw a dagger into the throat of the surviving alpha before bringing Blood toward the knees of the general; it blocked her attack with the maul it was carrying before knocking her back with a punch. Staggering back Elisa wiped blood of the cracked lip the creature had given her and moved to attack, driving Blood towards the center of the general's chest; the monster parried her blow. Elisa took the second of pause that the parry offered to look behind the general and see the ogre crush the life out of her King; she stopped and stared for a second before entering her next attack but that second had cost her and the generals maul came sweeping towards her leg.

She managed to get Blood in the way but she was not able to fully parry the attack and the blade of her weapon was pressed into her leg, drawing blood. The blow brought her to her knees and she looked up to see the general raise the maul above its head to finish her off; she could not block such a heavy weapon like she had a longsword, nor did she have enough mana left to deflect it or go intangible. If the general completed the blow she would die.

Fortunately the general never had a chance; in the last second before it killed her, the general found himself run through by a hurlock. Elisa looked at the wound in her leg and smiled; even if it did sting a little blood was always good for something. Elisa downed a lyrium potion that Neira had given her and healed the wound before dashing to where Duncan kneeled over the ogre that had killed the king; even if she couldn't save the king at least she could save the Warden-Commander.

Elisa dashed to where Duncan was kneeling and hauled him to his feet "Come on!" her voice full of urgency "We have to get you to safety!"

"Leave me" Duncan rasped "I'll slow you down. Listen to me" he grabbed the front of Elisa's armor "The treaties I had your sister and the other wardens retrieve are in a chest by the bonfire. You need to get them and use them! Replace the army we lost here today and end the blight!"

"Do it yourself sir" Elisa replied "I can get you to safety"

"You believe that, maybe you're even good enough to be telling the truth, but you've forgotten one thing: wardens do what they must, no matter the price and you must get to those treaties" Because she had been focused on looking at Duncan's injuries she had not seen the dagger that Duncan had drawn from his belt, she had not seen him bring it up, ready to push it in.

But she saw it now, sticking out of his chest; he had killed himself in order to make sure that she would not lose time trying to save him. She looked down at the man who had trusted her to do the right thing even when she kept such dangerous secrets from him and his men, at the man whose skill had allowed him to hold his own against her when they had spared back in Highever, at the man who had just proved beyond a doubt that he would sacrifice anything to best ensure that they stopped the blight. She would not dishonour his sacrifice.

Elisa turned and headed towards the camp; nothing would stop her from carrying out Duncan's orders.

**A/N And so the surviving wardens are set on the path that will lead them to place two rulers on the throne, battle werewolves and abominations and eventually defeat a blight before it even begins. **

**A few side notes: 1. The child and the demon interludes will occur with varying frequency, right now I think I'll do one every three chapters but that number may go up or down depending on how many of those I come up with and how many chapters I write. I do know this however; the last interlude will be in the last chapter before the Epilogue, and is the only one that is not a flashback – it actually occurs at the beginning of the chapter. **

**2. I wrote a one-shot set in this universe about Shianni getting drunk after the incident with Vaughan. George is there with her and Kallian shows up at the end. Not really anything to it, it was just bouncing around in my head so I put it on paper, well computer. If you're interested you can find it here: s/8688763/1/An-elf-a-dog-and-a-bottle**

**3. While writing this chapter I realized I wasn't quite sure why Elisa went to rescue the king alone, I knew that's what she would do but I didn't know why. Did she believe that if she couldn't do it no one could? Did she think that the others would slow her down? Did she not think the king was and didn't want to risk too many wardens to save him? I honestly don't know. I don't know where I'm going with this side note but I just found myself writing it down. Oh well I'll keep it.**

**Oh, and before anyone asks me "How can you not know why your own characters do stuff?" I would like to say that I don't dictate what my characters do, I decide what they're like at the beginning and what happens to them but not how they react. While they are to some extent controlled by me subconsciously since they're in my head and I can usually guess what they'd do before they do it, I have found at times that I'll be writing and they'll go off and do something that I didn't want them to do (i.e. long bouts of chatter in chapter 4 and how Kallian killed Vaughan in the last prologue, I'd originally meant for her to horribly maim him but let him live)**

**Anyways I'll shut up now, thanks for reading and please review**


	9. Chapter 6

**A/N So in a review a Guest pointed out that Alistair does have a sister-in-law and so that particular passage doesn't quite work. I'd like to thank Cathy (the Guest) for pointing out my mistake and say that I rewrote that passage so Flemeth says "[Alistair's] wife's sister" instead of sister-in-law. Not a big change but it's there and again I'd like to point out that I appreciate any and all constructive criticism and will do my best to act on it.**

Both the camp and the tower where completely overwhelmed by darkspawn.

It became apparent that somehow the darkspawn had managed to slip behind the camp's fortifications and overwhelm any defenders left there or at the tower. Upon discovering this the group paused briefly and said a prayer to their respective gods for Alice and Alistair, who were almost certainly slain by such numbers. Neira found her thoughts straying to Elisa, the poor woman had found her sister against all odds only to lose her a day later.

Still concealed within the forest the group began to move north, out of the wilds, hoping to warn Ferelden about the threat they faced. If she had survived Elisa should be able to guess what they had done and catch up.

"Leaving so soon?" a voice from shadows of the trees asked "and without your fellow wardens? There are so few of you that one would think that you would not abandon the three that remain." The witch, Morrigan stepped out from behind the trees.

"Three wardens are still alive?" Neira and Kallian asked simultaneously

"Yes, my mother rescued the two that were on the tower and there is a third that seems to be retrieving something from the camp; normally I'd have given her up for dead but she seems not to know the meaning of the word, however effectively she imparts it on the darkspawn."

The group was overjoyed; Alistair, Alice and one other were alive! "Can you describe the one in camp?" Neira asked hopefully

"She is a young blond woman with pale skin and short hair she keeps in a small ponytail, she is wearing medium armor and carries two swords on her back and is using some staff-like weapon to eliminate the darkspawn quite effectively. If I had to choose I would definitely try to rescue her; she is far more valuable a soldier than the other two, or any of you."

Frowning at the blunt, albeit correct assessment Theron asked "is there any way we could signal her?"

"Indeed, I believe she spotted me when I flew above her a few minutes ago, if I could draw her attention I could easily get her here."

"One second," Neira placed a magical sigil on Morrigan's inner forearm "Being an apostate born into one of the most powerful families in Ferelden had made Elisa very suspicious by nature, she might not follow you if you attempt to lead her anywhere; hopefully she'll recognize the mark as mine and be more amendable to accepting a strange shapeshifter as a guide"

"That would most likely make this easier, stay here I will be right back" Morrigan took the form of a crow and flew off to where Elisa was fighting for her life.

A few minutes later Morrigan leads a woman that is so covered in blood that she is completely unrecognizable save for the distinct shape of the blood coated weapon in her hand. Relief at seeing her friend causes Neira to giggle; Blood covered in blood, the situation causes her to find it uncontrollably funny and soon the wardens all share her mirth. Things may be bad but they are alive and the horde is not here.

Morrigan shook her head at the display "Mother said grey wardens can be a bit odd" she said to herself, having shifted back to human form. "If you are all done attempting to lure the darkspawn here with your laughter then follow me; I will lead you to Mother and the other two wardens"

oOo

Alice and Alistair lay side by side in Morrigan's Mother's hut, laid out on the two beds that sat within. Morrigan's Mother – Flemeth, she revealed her name to be – worked tirelessly to bring the two back from the edge of oblivion. Once they arrived Neira, Solona, Elisa and Morrigan all aided how they could. While it was stressful and exhausting work they fared far better than the others, who were forced to wait idly for news, tortured by the fact that there was nothing they could do for two of the few comrades they had left.

The group was pleasantly surprised when Alice's dog, George, Kallian reminded them, walked into camp two days later. While not as good as one of their friends awakening, George's survival brought hope to the group. One day later Alistair awoke from his sleep; while his injuries were mostly healed he was still weakened and Morrigan forced him to spend most of his time resting in order to speed recovery. Thanks to the work of the five mages Alice would be all but recovered when she awoke and if Alistair did not overextend himself they would be able to leave shortly after she opened her eyes.

About mid-morning the next day Alice finally awoke, much to the relief of the group who not only worried for her but also had to deal with Alistair and Kallian reaching the point of insanity with worry for her. The only reason Elisa was not with them in that state was that she spent every waking moment helping heal her sister, even going so far as to learn the basics of spirit healing from Neira in the process.

Once Alice dressed in her armor, thoroughly repaired during her unconsciousness the group made to leave; having made plans for gathering the army Duncan had ordered during the long hours they spent waiting for Alistair and Alice to awake. As they turned to leave Elisa turned to Flemeth and said "Thank you for everything" bowing low.

The old witch brushed of her thanks and asked for them to wait a moment before departing. Morrigan approached them "The stew is on the pot Mother, will we have nine guests for dinner or none?"

"The grey wardens are leaving my dear" Flemeth informed her "and you shall be going with them"

"Such a shame –" Morrigan began before the second part of what her mother had said registered "What?"

The suggestion drew a look of dismay from Alistair and a look of interest from Theron, before either of them could say anything however Elisa spoke up "Thank you, but if Morrigan doesn't want to come with us…"

Flemeth clearly had an annoying habit of brushing of the concerns of other people "You need her to help you avoid the horde and the dangers of the wilds" she stated in a tone of voice that brokered no argument "and her magic will be useful against what you will face."

Elisa nodded; clearly the witch wasn't telling them everything but she doubted that they would be able to safely leave the wilds with Morrigan's help, if at all. Since the witches had proved trustworthy so far she wouldn't argue and risk alienating Morrigan.

Morrigan collected her things and suggested that they head for Lothering to get supplies. Elisa accepted her suggestion and told the group of the change of plans. After reminding Alistair that grey wardens accepted help where ever it came from the group set off; heading out to stop the blight and save their country, or die trying.

**A/N Quite the short chapter it seems but it ended well and if I continue on I'm afraid I'll wind up with another 4000 word chapter, or longer since I intend to cover all of Lothering and have everyone lay out who's going where in a single chapter. That means that I'll be introducing Sten, Leliana and Bodhan and Sandal in the next chapter as well as going through the first camp scene, which will wind up being far longer than the one in the game since the new additions plus Alistair's suggestions will mean that they will need to revisit the plans they did make and rethink them, which may take a while.**

**Anyways, thanks for reading and please review!**


	10. Chapter 7

Lothering was in chaos.

First of all, law enforcement was so lax that no one had been able to do anything about the group of thugs running an extortion racket right outside of town. Fortunately for any refuges that had not yet arrived Elisa wasn't in the mood for grandstanding idiots and the group killed them all. Secondly the entire town was full to the brim with refuges and the surrounding fields had been turned into a camping ground for those who could not find shelter, ruining the farmers' livelihood. Granted that the fields would no doubt be destroyed by the approaching darkspawn but it still showed how the place had fallen apart.

As they approached the village proper Kallian asked "Since I'm the one who'll most likely be in charge of the illegal stuff I have to ask; do we have any money, or am I going to have to start stealing?"

Elisa didn't even look back "One, I'm sure your good but at the moment your pickpocketing is still a unknown quantity so my sister would be in charge of the illegal stuff and two;" she held up a coin purse "the treaties where stored next to the warden's monetary assets and I took as much of Highever's treasury as I could carry with Howe's men at arms and Templars on my ass when I left."

Kallian accepted the answer briefly then frowned "wait are you saying that I should be good at pickpocketing because I'm an elf?" she asked indignantly

"Are you good at pickpocketing?"

"…yes"

"Then don't complain about me making assumptions; you're death with knives and you're poor, claiming that you can't pickpocket would be like a pirate claiming that he hadn't slept with the tavern wench on his way to the healer."

Guessing the question that her sister was about to ask as Alice turned toward her, Elisa said "Howe's men were just leaving when I got there; one of them had a maul and they weren't interested in preserving our family history" her voice was sad and she smiled grimly "I couldn't undo what they had done but I could teach them a lesson about the value of history" the smile went from grim to downright frigid "I can't imagine any of Howe's remaining men will be destroying family relics anytime soon"

Alice shivered; she loved her sister but some days she wondered if Elisa went a bit too far.

oOo

Reaching the village gates, Elisa turned to the group in an all business manner; cutting off any musings her sister would have had. "Right," she said "Alistair, Alice, Solona and Theron, you will go to the chantry board and see if there are any jobs that you could take to improve the lot of these people; we don't know what Loghain's been saying about the grey wardens but I doubt it's very nice, try to gain some goodwill from helping these people. Don't advertise that you're grey wardens but don't try to hide it either, I'd bet good money that Loghain's released our descriptions in case we survived so that won't be too hard to do. Morrigan, Kallian and Natia, you're in charge of getting us supplies; camping essentials, food, health poultices, injury kits, raw materials, whatever you think will help us. Duran and Neira, you're with me, we're going to the tavern to see what news we can pick up about Loghain, what's going on and what people are saying; Duran you're good with politics, albeit the other end of them, so keep an eye out for that kind of stuff. Neira, you're good with picking up hostility; let me know what you find"

Duran turned to Neira and asked "You're good with spotting hostility?"

Neira shrugged "I'm a powerful, outspoken mage who made herself impossible to ignore; if I didn't know when I was starting to piss off the Templars I'd be dead right now"

Giving Morrigan the money she felt she would need at the absolute maximum and handing over a smaller amount to Alice in case it was needed, Elisa set a meeting point just outside the village two hours from now before the three groups headed off to complete their separate tasks.

oOo

Elisa headed to the tavern, listening to the refugee's chatter as she walked. As they entered the tavern they were greeted by a group of soldiers "Well, it looks like it's out lucky day boys." The commander said "didn't we spend the entire morning asking if anyone had seen these three? It seems like we were lied to" The soldiers moved in and Elisa and Duran moved to draw their weapons while Neira readied her staff and began a spell.

"Gentlemen please," a woman in chantry robes and carrying a pair of daggers approached the soldiers "These travellers are weary and not who you seek"

Elisa grinned "Sister, if these men are looking for a fight then I will happily oblige"

The fight was over as quickly as it began.

Surrounded by the corpses of his men the commander desperately yelled out "I surrender!"

Stopping her swing, Elisa waved Duran to keep an eye on the soldier while she picked up a sheet of paper on of the soldiers had been carrying. Looking at it briefly she then turned to commander, and with a single flash of her blade, removed his head.

The sister turned to Elisa and snapped "They had surrendered!"

"Right now Loghain doesn't know how many, if any wardens are still alive, I have no intention of giving them that information."

She sighed "I'm sorry if I interfered but I couldn't stand by while others were in danger"

Deciding not to point out the now obvious lack of danger that the three had been in Elisa nodded "I see, so where does a chantry sister learn to fight like that?"

"Many have had lives outside the chantry" she replied "I learned such skills there"

"Very well, good day sister" Elisa turned to leave

"Wait! Those men said you were grey wardens, I would like to aid you if you would have me."

Elisa considered it "I do need help that's true"

"That and the Maker wants me to go with you"

Elisa blinked "Can you… elaborate?"

The sister flushed "It must sound crazy, but I had a dream and then you are here; it must be a sign. What you do, what you are meant to do; I cannot sit idly by while I could be helping others."

Elisa looked like she was considering her own sanity when she replied "I will not turn away aid where it is offered."

Duran looked like he had already decided on the state of Elisa's sanity "Elisa, are you sure you want to bring her with us? She's an Archdemon short of a blight"

Elisa chuckled "Yes, but the voices in her head are telling her to kill darkspawn; I can live with that"

The sister smiled at Elisa "So glad for the vote of confidence, I am Leliana; let us get on with the task at hand yes?"

oOo

As Alistair, Alice, Theron and Solona completed the last of the tasks that the chantry board had presented, the brother not only handed them the payment but also presented them with a well beautiful sword of very fine make "Take Oathkeeper" he said "For such a weapon should not lie unused and you are clearly ones to do the Maker's work"

Alice and Alistair looked at each other; while Oathkeeper was a magnificent weapon, their own swords were of better make, as were the swords carried by the others of the group. They turned to give their regrets to the brother only to see that Solona had taken the weapon from the brother and was looking it over. Seeing the odd glances that the other members of the group were giving her she stammered "I-I've always been f-fascinated with swords and I was t-thinking that Elisa could t-teach me"

Alistair frowned but Alice stepped forward and examined the blade "It's a fine weapon" she said "and it has an extra rune slot where you can place and enchantment; Elisa usually carries a few runes that will allow a weapon to conduct magic in case she needs them and she could do the same for this one" Alice hesitated "You might not like how the runes work however"

Alistair raised an eyebrow "Elisa can enchant?"

"Only certain runes and the way she binds them to the weapons is… unusual"

Thinking back to when she had held Blood, Solona paused and thought it over before nodding "I've had a look at Blood so I think I know what you're talking about and I'm ok with it"

"You're ok with the use of such magic?"

Solona shrugged "My main issue with the use of power is how it corrupts; if Elisa was to be corrupted she would have been by now" Alice twitched before Solona continued "My only curiosity is where Elisa found such unknown magic"

Alice did not reply.

Alistair raised an eyebrow "Isn't this where you're supposed to smile secretly and tell us we'll see?"

"It would be better if you did not see"

Theron grunted "If this secret of your sister's impedes our quest, I will leave you tied to a tree in the Brecilian forest with no food and water for a week; if you survive then I will reward you by slitting your throat"

Alice ignored his threat "I trust my sister" was all she said.

"Now how about we see the revered mother about that qunari that we saw" Alice changed the subject.

"You know, I'm kinda curious on how you intend to convince the revered mother to release a mass murder into the custody of a group of young – I don't know, soldiers, mercenaries, dangerous people?"

"One, by now she'll have heard rumors of some alleged grey wardens who have been helping around town; in a small town like this gossip spreads like wildfire and revered mothers always hear – and tell – the best gossip. Two we just completed a number of tasks for them to the point that they gave us an Oathkeeper"

"Their Oathkeeper actually" interjected Solona "see the marking there? That means that it's The Oathkeeper of the Lothering chantry, the sword they use to knight the Templars that complete their training here as well as take and acknowledge oaths; they only give a sword like this away if they feel that the recipient has or will do a great service to the chantry"

"Or the place is about to be razed by darkspawn and they want their shem relic safe while they claim it means they backed the grey wardens if we succeed and can deny everything if we fail" Theron muttered as Alice and Alistair looked at Solona in surprise, "What?" she blushed "I grew up in the circle, it's just one of those things I picked up."

Alice grinned; for all her powerful magic, it seemed that the young mage was quite a bookworm "Even better" she chuckled "and third, the revered mother will like me."

Alistair looked at her "How can you be so sure the revered mother will like you?"

Alice turned to Alistair and flashed him a dazzling smile as she ran her hands lightly down her body; drawing the attention of both the men to the fact that she had quite the figure, even covered by armor "Don't you think I'm likeable?"

Alistair snapped his gaze back up to her face "Y-yes, well I do but I think that the revered mother will like you for that reason"

"Well maybe she'll like you then" with that Alice turned and headed towards the chantry building leaving the others to follow as Theron muttered to himself about "Shemlen entrapments" and Alistair nearly walked into the chantry board while watching the sway of Alice's hips. Solona finished securing Oathkeeper's sheath across her back and caught up to the others; they would get the key from the revered mother, secure the qunari's release and then meet up with Elisa and the others before the brother realized that Alice had suggested seducing the revered mother.

oOo

Waiting for the others while Elisa and Duran went to help Morrigan, Kallian and Natia carry the supplies they had bought, Neira and Leliana sat at the meeting point swapping stories of the good and bad points of the chantry; understandably Neira had more bad stories than good and Leliana had more good stories than bad. However, neither was blind to the evil or good of the chantry and so it made good conversation for the two to compare and contrast the views of one who had willingly gone to the chantry and was allowed to leave against those of one who had been forced to acknowledge chantry governance and had only recently been shown a chance to leave.

"So let me get this straight; this Templar, Jorran, raped your friend? A mage that he had sworn that he would protect until the times that she showed the desire to do others harm?" the revulsion was clear on Leliana's face.

Neira bared her teeth in anger "And then had her marked as a maleficar and executed when he realized that she was going to tell the knight-commander" Neira's face twisted into a terrifying smile that reminded Leliana of an interrogator that she had encountered several years ago; full of malice and the promise to hurt you in the worse way possible. For a moment she could almost see the walls of the cell and smell the stench of blood and other fluids that had permeated that dungeon; she shook her head and placed her hand on the grass she sat on and leaned back to feel the sun's rays on her face, bringing her back the present. She then turned her attention back to what Neira was saying "…gave him nightmares every night; it's a pity that Elisa killed him, in a few more days he would have confessed and then killed himself, making the other Templars more cautious in how they treated mages"

Leliana was thrown off-guard by what Neira had said, wondering what piece of information to address first. "Wait, why would a Templar's confession and suicide improve the lot of the mages?" she asked, deciding to address that topic first.

"If he had confessed to something else, like murdering his brother or even raping someone who was not a mage it wouldn't have. But since he would have confessed raping and killing a mage, everyone would have wondered if his actions were the work of another vengeful mage, or a spirit that the girl had given access to his mind to, or something else that involved magic" Neira explained, her smile changes once again; this time to devious "It's sometimes useful that magic is such an unknown in our world, people are so quick to blame weird stuff on it, especially around the circle; and it can be quite easy to get away with stuff that nobody knows about"

"But you didn't get away with it, did you? Elisa mentioned that you were forced to flee the circle after being accused of blood magic" Leliana asked

Neira shrugged "True, but that was more about the fact that I was always getting up in the Templars' faces about stuff; mages are always under scrutiny for corruption and no matter how dedicated you are to the truth, you're always more likely to suspect the person that you don't like over the one that you do" Neira's face fell, sadness showing on her delicate, elven features "Not to mention the fact that I was best friends with a confirmed blood mage didn't help"

The approach of Elisa and the others cut off what Leliana had been about to say. Jumping on the chance to escape from the painful memories of Jowan's betrayal, Neira turned to Elisa and asked "What have we got?"

Elisa dumped the bags she had been carrying on the group "Tents, flint, cooking utensils, healing poultices, more herbs then I can name, materials for weapon and armor repair, weapons and armor for Leliana, and a couple of other things that might come in handy; Morrigan picked it out and Kallian made sure we got a good price, so it seems like we're all set once the others get here. Leliana, catch" she tossed a set of leather armor as well a sword and a bundle of daggers and knives to the girl, followed by a quiver and bow.

"Thank you" Leliana took the armor and weapons and went behind a tree to change into the new equipment.

"Hey, I can see Alistair coming over the hill; everyone's with him and – holy shit" Kallian's observation on Solona's new weapon was interrupted by the shock she felt at seeing a giant following the group "Where the fuck did they find that guy?"

Elisa looked over to observe the giant "Kossith, moves like a fighter, so most likely Beresaad or Tal-Vashoth, possibly Ben-Hassrath but that's unlikely"

Kallian looked over at Elisa "That told me absolutely nothing"

"Qunari, most likely a Vanguard or renegade, maybe a mix of priest and spy but that's unlikely"

"Mix of priest and spy?"

"To qunari it's the same thing"

As the five approached Elisa turned and called out something in a different language, the qunari seemed taken aback "I did not think that I would hear my own tongue for some time, it is a welcome sound" The qunari inclined his head in acknowledgement "We have not met, but I have heard of you, basalit-an and am glad to find that you are our leader; I am Sten of the Beresaad"

Elisa turned to the others "A vanguard of the qunari people" she explained "Greetings Sten, you will be a welcome addition to our group, I am Elisa; may I ask how my companions came to recruit you? And where is Asala?

"I was attacked by darkspawn near Lake Calenhad; they rose out of the ground and attacked me and my brothers. When the last of the monsters was slain I collapsed; when I awoke Asala was not in my hand. Several farmers had taken me in and when I awoke without Asala I asked them if they knew where it was they said they did not; I panicked and unthinkingly struck them down."

Elisa accepted his answer "The mark of a true warrior is the ability to maintain discipline no matter the situation; barring that, it is best to remember what our scars show us by honouring our mistakes and becoming stronger by them" she admonished

"Of course basalit-an"

"Know this, our paths will lead us to Lake Calenhad; I promise that we will search for your sword when we are there"

"Thank you basalit-an"

"Ok, raise your hand if you didn't understand a word of that?" Neira quipped as she raised her hand, along with everyone save Duran, Theron and Morrigan, who stated they "think they got it"

"Sten was attacked by darkspawn, Sten killed them all, Sten passed out from his injuries and woke up in a farmer's house, when Sten found out that his sword wasn't there he panicked and killed the family that lived there" Elisa clarified

"That's horrible!" exclaimed Leliana

"Without excuse, but he will redeem himself by helping us end the blight." Elisa replied

Sten interjected "I would not question your prowess, basalit-an but I must ask if we need those of such" he paused before continuing "questionable discipline"

"Not all discipline knows the qun so readily; would you say that someone could not speak because they did not speak the qun?"

"Of course not"

"Then recognize that not all discipline is bound to the discipline of the qun; everyone here is powerful and disciplined in their own way, failing to recognize that would lead you to take dangerous mistruths to your people and I doubt you want that"

"Of course not, I will try to see if there is truth in what you say, basalit-an"

"I would not expect anything less from a Sten. Now" Elisa turned to the others "Let us be off, it would be best if left Lothering immediately, we can find armor and weapons for Sten later on. Solona is there any reason you are carrying a sword?"

Solona blushed "I was wondering if you could teach me how to fight"

"I could teach you how to use magic in a fight, of course. It wouldn't be like my fighting exactly; I think a different style would suit you better, but I could teach you. We'll start when we break for camp"

The group divvied out the equipment for everyone to carry and headed for the highway, when they got close they heard a voice calling out for help around the same time they sensed darkspawn. They drew their weapons and headed toward the call; Duran handed his greatsword to Sten, who accepted it with thanks, before drawing his sword and shield. The group found a dwarven merchant and his son being cornered by darkspawn, the group fell upon the attackers and killed them before they had registered the attack of the wardens and their allies.

After the fight was over the dwarf came over to them and said "thank you friend, I'm much obliged. I'm Bodhan and this is my boy Sandal"

"Hello" Sandal said, apparently the boy was a bit simple

"I'm always happy to help" Elisa said, "May I ask, what goods do you carry?"

"All sorts, are you interested in something?"

"I need a greatsword, heavy armor for my friend here" she indicated Sten "a shield and a set of chainmail for her" she nodded to Solona "and two tents, if you have them"

"You know I have just the thing, how does this work?" Bodhan presented the requested equipment to Elisa, who confirmed that the armor would fit and then agreed on the price. "Say" the dwarf said "would it be alright if we accompanied you for a time? I would think that the road would be much safer with your party"

Elisa nodded "It's a bit complicated but you are welcome to come along"

"Complicated? I bet that's only half of it. Come on boy, let's get this wheel fixed"

oOo

Never the less, when the group made camp Bodhan came by soon after, asking if they would allow him to stay. Elisa allowed it and he gratefully offered a discount should they want to purchase anything. At that point Solona approached her about learning how to use a sword. "Sure" she replied "the first thing we have to do is enchant the sword so it can channel magic, thankfully I have a rune for that"

"Would you like my boy to enchant the sword for you?" Bodhan asked "He's quite good at that sort of thing"

"Thank you, but your boy works with Lyrium, no?"

"Of course, how else can you enchant something?"

"Like this" taking a rune from her pocket, Elisa took Oathkeeper from Solona and pressed the edge into the palm of the hand in which she held the rune, cutting her hand. Her blood moved along Oathkeeper's blade making strange patterns that appeared to be connected runes, albeit ones that Solona had never seen before. The blood stopped moving and then glowed briefly, before disappearing into the blade. When Elisa removed her hand, the rune was gone.

Solona gasped in amazement "I saw something like that in Blood but I didn't realize that it would be so effective when added after the smithing; where did you learn to do that?"

Elisa just smiled.

After that the two found a clear area and Elisa began to teach Solona the basics of Arcane combat; showing her how to direct her magic inward to augment her strength and to a lesser extent her speed. Solona had easily gotten that down; it was the easiest part of fighting with magic. Elisa also went into how to channel her magic down the sword – even with the enchantment it was different to send magic through steel as opposed to a staff – and some basic techniques on how to use a sword and shield and on fighting in armor. When Morrigan called out that dinner was ready Elisa ended the lesson and the two went to eat with the others.

After they were done eating Alistair spoke up "Ok what's the plan?"

Elisa cleared her throat "Right now we're caught between an immediate threat, Loghain and a long-term but more serious threat, the blight. We need to gather an army to replace what was lost at Ostagar and to that end we'll use the treaties" she held up the treaties "however we also need Loghain off our backs and Ferelden settled, for that we'll need the support of the Arls; Alistair, you mentioned you were raised by Arl Eamon of Redcliff?"

"Yes, he wasn't at Ostagar so he still has his armies and he's a good man, he won't stand for this if he knows about it."

"Then we'll split up into two groups; Redcliff and the circle aren't too far apart so we'll go to those places first. Alistair, Alice, Kallian, Leliana, Morrigan and Theron, you'll go the Redcliff and see if you can gain the aid of the Arl. Sten, Duran, Natia, Solona and Neira, you're coming with me to the circle of magi; hopefully the knight-commander forgot to dust off the rule books on warden recruitment after we left. We'll camp here tonight and head out tomorrow morning"

The first leg of their journey completed and the second planed out, the group mentally prepared for the trials they would face at their respective destinations.

**A/N So a couple things. One, as you saw Elisa has worked with the qunari before, I imagined that she would have met them at one point or another and impressed them with her discipline, hence her knowledge of the qun and her "basalit-an" status (something along the lines of someone who knows the qun without being part of it, for those who haven't played DA2) I think I'll either work that story into a conversation at some point or make a one-shot about it, maybe both, we'll see. The reason that Sten was so willing to divulge information that it took forever to get out of him in the game was a matter of respect; while he wouldn't just tell everything to some random warden he's heard stories of Elisa's skill and ability and respects her as a result – I've always gotten the impression that basalit-ans are very rare, so I think they'd be one of the few things that the qunari talk amongst themselves of. Second, the reason that I had it so Duran, Theron and Morrigan followed Elisa and Sten's conversation was because Duran and Theron both have a warrior's discipline and that allows them to understand the conversation – I originally considered Alistair understanding as well for this reason but he's simply too silly most of the time to use his discipline to understand something like that. Morrigan understood it because even if she doesn't have a warrior's discipline, she has spent a lot of her life observing customs that she does not understand and so is adept at figuring out what people are talking about.**

**As always please review.**

**This story is brought to you by homework – that thing I should be doing.**


	11. Chapter 8

The next morning the groups packed up the camp and headed out in their respective destinations, Bodhan and Sandal decided that they would follow Elisa's group – Elisa suspected that they may have Lyrium and were hoping to sell it to the Templars or mages. As the team headed toward the tower Neira approached Elisa "So Solona said you used a form of blood magic to enchant her blade last night"

Elisa looked over at her friend "Is that an issue?" her voice was cautious.

"Not unless the Templars find out, you may want to refrain from using any spells like that when we're at the tower, it may stop them from sensing it."

Elisa sighed "The Templars know that I'm a mage after what happened at Highever, hopefully they'll respect the warden's claim on me and leave it at that. As for sensing the magic, one of the bonuses of learning a pride demon's magic is that I can mask any traces of magic, let alone blood magic, quite effectively"

Neira's eyebrow shot up "You learned your magic from a pride demon?"

"I never said I learned directly from a pride demon but yes, the style of blood magic I use is a pride demon's"

"Different demons teach different blood magic?"

"Yes, the style they teach is based on their own nature; rage demons teach more forceful violent spells, hunger demons more consuming spells and so on. Pride demon blood magic is cunning and deceptive, used to draw your opponent in and think that they've won and then crushing them with their own arrogance. I also know a bit of desire demon magic but that's better for a… softer setting" Elisa's voice turned soft toward the end

Neira was intrigued "That sounds interesting" she murmured "perhaps you can show me?"

"Perhaps" Elisa turned and placed one hand on the elven mage's waist "I think you find it quite captivating"

It occurred to Neira that she might already be getting a demonstration

Elisa leaned in close and whispered in her ear "However we'd have to wait until we were far away from the Templars no?" before removing her hand from Neira's waist and walking towards the others.

Neira found herself wishing for two things; a cold bath and the death of every Templar in Thedas.

oOo

The sun set on the group when they were about a quarter of the way there. The day had gone smoothly, the only issue being a group of bandits that had set up a clumsy ambush for travellers. They had considered simply avoiding the whole incident but decided to ambush the group instead after Natia pointed out that they could "Kill them and take their stuff" to ensure continued funding for the wardens. While none were better at quietly removing the outermost bandits than Natia, Elisa and Neira both proved to be quite good at subtle attacks; Elisa was no stranger to moving quietly and could use blood magic or a quick knife to deal with any who discovered her and Neira's aptitude towards subtle, weakening magics allowed her to weaken, or even kill her target before they even realized what was happening. Once they dealt with any scouts or lookouts the bandits had posted Solona sent a firestorm into the center of the camp, with Sten and Duran hot on its heels. Truthfully it had not been necessary to use such elaborate tactics but Elisa had wanted to experiment with the capabilities of the group and it was always good practice to work on more subtle and effective tactics when possible – provided they did not endanger anyone of course.

After dinner Elisa gave Solona another lesson on combat magic, mainly revising what they had gone over last time and only adding a few new parries and attack patterns to the lesson. Solona was learning very quickly; perhaps it was natural talent, or maybe the discipline that allowed the mage to cast spells for hours without needing to imbibe any lyrium potions, it could even be that using magic to augment her strength made learning the sword just like learning another spell. Whatever the reason, Solona would probably be able to fight melee effectively after another night at camp or two.

"Just out of curiosity" Solona asked at the end of the lesson, just before Elisa went to return the shield she had borrowed from Duran "How come you chose the sword and shield for me instead of having a weapon in each hand?"

Elisa paused for a second, considering her question; she hadn't really thought about it but had simply acted out of instinct born of experience then giving conscious thought to the decision. "Dual wielding is a difficult style to learn; wielding two full length weapons is difficult and all but the best fighters find themselves tangled up by their own weapons when they attempt it. Also it is possibly the most unforgiving style to learn; making a mistake with two as a dual-wielder is more often fatal then when using a pole arm or sword and shield or even a two-handed weapon. Furthermore you seem to value defensive magic above offensive and that is a mentality that works best with a shield." Elisa shrugged "not to mention finding a second weapon that could conduct magic or be enchanted to conduct magic may prove difficult; you were lucky to find Oathkeeper"

Solona accepted the explanation "Fair enough, just one more thing" Solona hesitated before continuing "I was just thinking that we're calling this sword Oathkeeper, but that's not really true anymore is it? I mean part of the Oath that the sword represents is to protect against blood magic but we've enchanted it with blood, somewhat violating the oath right? So if this sword has been corrupted by the thing that it was made to defend against then it's not really Oathkeeper is it?"

Elisa nodded "True, what do you want to call it then"

Solona hesitated for a moment before holding the weapon in her hand in front of her face, staring at it as the blood runes glowed at her command "Oathbreaker"

oOo

The sun had already set when they reached Lake Calenhad, if they had not been so close to the small collection of buildings near the docks by the circle the group would have already made camp. As it were Solona had pointed out that they could take up residence at the tower and not have to out again.

As they approached the docks Sten pulled Elisa to the side "This is where we were attacked" he said

"Let's see if we can see anything then"

Elisa explained the reason for the detour and the group spread out, they quickly found a scavenger who called out "What are you doing here? These are my lands! I paid for scavenging rights plain and simple!"

Elisa walked up to the man "Don't suppose you scavenged a sword?" she grabbed the man by the front of his shirt and hauled him up "because my friend here wants it back"

"N-No! I bought the rights off a trader, said there was plenty of loot! Didn't say he'd already taken it!"

"Name, Location"

"I-I'm having trouble remembering…" the rest of his sentence was cut off when Elisa slammed him into the back of a tree

"Now"

The scavenger told them that the looter he bought it off was named Faryn and had been headed up to Orzammar after he sold the land. Elisa turned to Sten and said "Orzammar, we need to head there to get the dwarves support, we'll get your sword back Sten"

"Thank you basalit-an"

The issue resolved they headed down to the docks that would take them to the tower. Neira and Solona looked around, appearing to be quite amused. "We've never seen this area" Neira revealed

"You've left the tower before haven't you?" Natia asked

"Yes but we stole a boat and bashed it into some rocks about 3 miles away from here; luckily the water wasn't too deep and we got ashore safely enough, started running into the forest as soon as we could."

There was a Templar guarding the docks, when they got close enough to recognize his face Solona groaned at the same time as Neira swore. Elisa turned to them and asked "What is it?"

Solona explained "Carroll, the Templar over there, was sent to the chantry because he was a continued embarrassment to his noble father; once in Carroll decided to join the Templars and the only reason he made it through training is because his father decided he'd rather bribe the knight-commander in charge of training then suffer the disgrace of having his son fail. He's an idiot and a buffoon who doesn't have two thoughts to rub together. His only saving qualities are his willingness to enjoy the company of mages and his… size"

"He does not appear to have a rather large build" Sten frowned

"Think lower Sten"

oOo

Despite his goofiness, disbelieving that they were grey wardens until he saw Solona and claiming to be the queen of Antiva, yelling "Don't question royalty!" when they tried to dispute it; Carroll was easy to handle and Elisa had him rowing them over to the circle before he knew it. There was some mess about half way over when Carroll had realized the Neira was an accused blood mage but was convinced to keep rowing on the grounds that a) Neira was a grey warden now and not the Templar's problem and b) if she was a blood mage then Greagoir would be happier if she was trapped on an island. He spent the rest of the trip trying to convince Solona that she didn't need to meet the Knight-Commander and should stay with him instead.

When they arrived at the tower they found Knight-Commander sealing the doors to the rest of the tower, leaving only the first few chambers available. He noticed them and went to confront them "What's going on here?" he demanded "I thought I told Carroll to keep all visitors away from the Tower"

"Carroll's not good at following tricky orders; stuff like 'Don't drink the mage's experiment' 'Say no to pretty mage' and 'Don't let anyone in the tower' is so difficult for him to follow" quipped Neira, Greagoir had not seen her until that moment as she and Solona had been blocked from view by Elisa and Sten.

Greagoir frowned but seemingly could not argue as he did not argue "It seems you have returned" he glared at the two former circle mages, frowning briefly at Solona's new armor and weapons getup.

Neira and Solona both opened their mouths to reply – judging from the looks and their faces, Solona's reply would have been more polite than Neira's – before Elisa cut them off "The Grey Wardens are in need of assistance from the Circle of Magi" she said formally.

"We'll you'll find none here, the circle has been lost; we are waiting on the rite of Annulment and reinforcement from Denerim and have closed the Circle doors to prevent any of the abominations and maleficar that have overrun the place from escaping" Greagoir said

Sten opened his mouth to say something but a look from Elisa shut him up; she then turned to the Knight-Commander and said "Surely some of the mages still live"

"If any still live than the Maker himself has guided them, I will not risk the lives of my men on pointless rescue missions"

"Then I'll go in the tower and deal with the abominations myself"

"I will not allow-" Elisa cut him off

"I am a warden" she said "I need mages for my efforts against the blight, these people are not helpless and can protect themselves, surely some still live; I will take my people into the tower and we'll clear it out. In return I expect that you will not prevent me from recruiting any and all willing and able mages into the army for combating the blight."

"I will not accept that the tower is safe unless I am told by the first enchanter himself; other than that I accept your terms. I will tell my men to open the doors, but be warned; you will not be allowed back out."

"Very well" Elisa quickly conferred with her group "Duran, you're in front with me; dwarven resistance to magic will make you a better meat shield then Sten. Natia, be aware that your resistance is not immunity; you can still be hurt and badly, use uttermost caution when sneaking up behind an attacker. Sten, I'm aware of Qunari treatment of mages, it would do well for you not to mention such things while we are here. Neira and Solona, do what you do best; you've spent to most time studying this type of combat and will recognize what threat maleficar and abominations represent, don't be afraid to offer advice or give us information, even if you think we know it." New tactics established, Elisa lead the group over the quartermaster where they restocked their supplies, buying extra lyrium potions as they feared that magic would be all to necessary. Once that was done Elisa let Greagoir know they were ready and led the group into the demon-infested tower.

Once inside the group quickly met up with a handful of mages who had barricaded themselves between the sealed doors and the rest of the tower using a powerful ward. Recruiting the mage who had casted the ward, Wynne, and leaving the other mages to guard the children that they had managed to save Elisa was about to lead the six further into the mage's tower when she noticed a large, metal door.

Pulling Neira aside she asked "What's that?" indicating the metal monstrosity.

"That is the door to the repository" Neira answered "it contains all sorts of magical items that the Templars keep locked away. I went down there just before fleeing the Circle to destroy mine and Jowan's phylacteries; vials of blood that the Templars keep to track us if we run away. I could sense all the magical items that had been hidden down there but we didn't have time so I had to leave them behind"

Elisa adsorbed this information "Anyway we could slip down there and put some of those magical items to good use?"

Neira nodded "Probably, but I don't think Wynne would approve"

"Then we'll just have to make sure she doesn't know" Turning to the others, Elisa ordered them to bed down for the night, they would rest here and tackle the tower in the morning. Solona would take the drain from the ward off Wynne so the older mage could properly recover before they went into the tower proper and the rest of them could get some sleep.

oOo

Once everyone was getting ready for bed, Elisa pulled Natia aside and asked her if she would be able to pick the lock to the repository. Natia treated the question with the scorn it deserved – of course she could pick the lock. Elisa volunteered for first watch and Natia for second; Natia picked the lock once everyone was asleep and when time came for her to take the watch, Elisa and Neira snuck down into the repository.

Once inside they quietly shut the doors and turned to the second door. Normally they would need a Templar to say a password to prime the door and then they would cast a spell to open it, however magic was magic and Neira proved yet again to be quite the crafty one; with Elisa's help she managed to trigger the prime and open the door without need of any password. After that the two slipped into the repository through the back door, Neira chuckling about how they had yet to replace the melted lock; her handiwork apparently.

Once inside they quickly went through the place, sentinels were displaced quickly when encountered and the two grabbed what they could find. Neira was quite fascinated by a number of books that could be found and stuffed them into her pack by the handful, vowing to read them over and see if she could learn any spells that could be useful. Elisa also grabbed a number of books for the same reason as well, being particularly attentive to a book titled _Observers: The ghosts of the fade _to the point where she stopped where she was, opened the book and began to read.

Neira look at the book over her shoulder "_Observers are most commonly thought to be denizens of the fade, they have in fact been attributed to be the mysterious spirits of faith and hope that have never been seen. This is not true; Observers are powerful mortal mages that possess the ability to see all aspects of the fade and magic as well as conceal themselves from either. They are extremely dangerous due to the fact that on top of their powerful magic they can see the aptitude and abilities of their attackers and so are impossible to ambush. Their ability to conceal themselves from magic is not so formidable in combat as a mage can still target them from sight, however it allows them to pass a mundane until they begin to cast spells; also fighting them in the fade would be fatal for any but another observer or a dreamer as they can use their concealment abilities to disappear from their attackers sight entirely and then attack them from a fatal angle. Like dreamers they can enter the fade at will and make the most powerful blood mages and spirit healers, however apart from their disappearing act they are unable to manipulate the fade as dreamers can. They can see the nature and origin of any enchantment and can even see the bloodlines of mortals – even those who have not magic. Since their abilities lie firmly within the observation of magic it may be possible that this suggests that all humans once wielded magic as the elves claimed to – certainly the Templar's abilities would indicate such" _she read aloud before looking at her friend "you're an observer, aren't you? I knew you had some unique abilities but I didn't know what they were called"

Elisa shut the book with a clap "the Tevinters have a name for everything, I found a book on Observers in one of their libraries a few years ago, I had been hoping that this one would have more information – maybe even some original research – but it looks like this book has nothing I don't already know. I keep it anyway; we don't have time for a thorough examination and maybe this scholar had something that others did not"

Once they reached the repository proper they began to move through the many magical items that had been stored here. After a brief examination the two found several rings and amulets that would augment their abilities and well as several tomes. As they went to leave Neira found a set of robes and a staff. The robes appeared to be similar to circle robes in design save for the fact that they were in a shade of green that was not used in circle hierarchy, they shone with power and Elisa could see that they did a great deal to augment the wearer's magic and would prove to be tougher than leather armor should anyone get close enough to Neira to strike a blow, touching them Neira declared the robes were called the "vestments of the seer". The staff was ancient and powerful, while Elisa was unsure why the robes were down here apart from that they might slow a Templar's sword should a mage be wearing them it was clear why the staff was down here; even from across the room Elisa could not only see but feel and hear the sheer power of the staff. It was a dark red and was decorated at the point by a Tevinter design that twisted it up to a stone at the top; just above the hand-grip was a small sharp edge that was the only part of the staff that wasn't smooth. It was clearly deliberate and there was no doubt in either of their minds what it was for.

Neira held the staff hesitantly "Should I…" her voice trailed, off full of doubt

"Wardens use whatever they can" Elisa urged "It's power, nothing more, nothing less. It might be dark power but that doesn't mean it's evil, it just means that it was used for evil." Sensing that Neira was coming around Elisa pressed on "You're a strong mage Neira, you will not fall prey to temptation; I understand why you wouldn't want to use something like this in the past but you're a warden now. We protect our own and I trust you to use your magic to serve what's best in you, not what's most base and what's best in you is using the power of this staff to help the Circle, help the friends I know you have here and by doing so defeat the blight"

Convinced Neira grabbed the staff fully and held it in front of her "I will not succumb" she said "I will take the darkness in me and fashion it into a blade that carves a path for the light"

"Good, now grab your new gear and let's go"

oOo

After battling their way through the first floor where Elisa and Neira oddly decided to touch statues at random they headed up to the second and ran into a tranquil. The three Circle mages in their group recognized him as Owain. After a brief conversation that revealed blood magic to be involved in the fall of the Circle and that another mage, Niall, had taken the Litany of Andralla in an attempt to save the circle, the band left the stockroom and went into the first part of the library.

There they encountered a group of blood mages, who immediately attacked them. Solona quickly threw up a shield to block any attacks while Elisa and Neira cast a pair of devastating spells that killed all but one of their attackers, the last mage had managed to hold her shield despite the sheer power of the their attacks and had survived, albeit drained of both mana and most of her blood; if she attempted another spell she would certainly die. "Please" she begged, "don't kill me"

Elisa considered it; this mage was certainly powerful if she could survive hers and Neira's attacks. She herself was not sure that she would have been able to deflect such a powerful attack without resorting to blood magic "Tell me why I should spare your life" she asked

"We didn't mean to kill so many, we only wanted to be free, but Uldred's gone insane and now we're trapped here to die"

"Then join us and make this right, help us save the tower and fight the darkspawn"

"The darkspawn? Who are you?"

"I am a grey warden, as are several of my companions. We can conscript you into our ranks if you would fight alongside us instead of dying here"

The mage nodded her assent; Elisa turned to Wynne and ordered the older mage to heal her. Wynne was taken aback "You want me to heal a blood mage? You want to work with a blood mage? They are the worst of mages and will turn on you at the slightest opportunity"

"Wynne, blood magic is a power just like any other, the only difference between it and the spells you use are what it can achieve; spirit healing can be used to heal, so people thing it must be good, yes? Blood magic can be used to harm so it must be evil, no? What about a sword then? Is it evil? Is a bandage good? Magic is a tool like any other; we only give concepts of good and evil to it because we are good and evil, blood magic can be used to do heal to you know, watch" Elisa knelt in the blood that covered the ground where the dead mages lay and held out her hand. The blood from the fallen streamed towards her and then into the wounds of the living mage, healing her. Elisa turned to face Wynne and said "I can also use "spirit healing" to hurt people to, you know"

Wynne sighed "I must admit I am surprised to see that you are a mage, let alone a blood mage. My first instinct is to attack you both; but I am an old women and I do not think I would survive if I did such a thing. I see that you mean to save the circle if you can and so I will help you for now. Once we are out of danger however, I will have a talk with the both of you"

Elisa just nodded but the blood mage they had recruited looked faintly alarmed at the idea of having a "talk" with Wynne, never the less she mastered herself and said "thank you for showing me mercy, my name is Clara Sanguis"

Elisa gave Clara the names of her companions and then added "I won't show you mercy again; you live by my rules or you die by them, understood?"

"Yes"

"Then get up, we have work to do"

oOo

They moved through the remainder of the second and the third floor with little difficulties, killing demons and blood mages where they found them, no other mages held off their attacks long enough for Elisa to offer them the chance to surrender and so they were all killed. They paused shortly in Irving's study to look for evidence as to what happened but found nothing on the topic; Neira thought she saw Elisa grab a black book of some sort but decided it wasn't important. The fourth floor was surprisingly sparse in comparison to the other floors and there were fewer battles, while this was a welcome fact it gave the group a feeling that the worst was yet to come.

Unfortunately they were right.

Upon entering the center chamber of the fourth floor they encountered a sloth abomination standing over a fallen mage "Niall!" Solona cried out, recognizing the mage.

"Ah, visitors" the demon began "It is so tiring to entertain, wouldn't it be better to simply rest"

Neira cried out "Sloth demon! Think quick, fast thought!"

"Ah, but isn't that so tiring? Wouldn't it be better to simply take a nap?" All save Elisa and Neira began to sway on their feet "Sleep" the demon commanded "the world will go on without you" the companions began to collapse on the floor one by one.

When only Elisa and Neira still stood the demon turned to face them "Fighting is so tiring but it would be even harder to make a dreamer and an observer take a nap" the demon said "I will simply have my minions kill you" taking four black vials from his robes the demon added "wouldn't death be best? Then you could sleep for all eternity" and tossed the vials onto the floor

They all broke.

**A/N my attempt at a cliffhanger, hopefully it did well.**

**Anyways the reason that I had the blood mage join the party (I think the reference I made with her name was about as obscure as glass, but I have the hardest time with naming characters so I tend to use references or jokes when I can) was because it always annoyed me that you could recruit her but she wouldn't show up again at all. My justification for Wynne agreeing to side with a blood mage or two was because she's kinda had a major shock recently; her home of about fifty years has been overrun, she's become an abomination and then she saw a young warrior heal somebody using blood magic and claim she could hurt people with the technique used by spirit healing – it's enough to make anyone question their beliefs, especially when the offenders are helping do the impossible and save the people she's known for her entire life.**

**The reason Sten didn't make his "Mages need to be locked away" comment was because he respects Elisa – as we've established – and understands that mages are needed for war efforts. So when Elisa subtly lets him know that she doesn't want him talking about the evil of mages he shuts up.**

**Also the observer thing is all my fabrication – I came up with it as a middle ground between mediums, who are barely above mages and dreamers, who are more or less all powerful once they get a hang on their abilities.**

**Next chapter is either going to be Elisa and Neira getting their asses kicked by four revenants followed by the conclusion of the circle of magi arc or the first part of the Redcliff arc – leave a review if you have an opinion, if no one says anything I'll simply go with what I start writing.**

**As always please review, thanks**


	12. Chapter 9

**A/N I changed to blood mage's name to Clara after posting the chapter – just sounded better.**

**Also I suppose that I should warn you that there will be F/F relationships in this story, however since that is not the point of the story I hope that it will not scare anyone away, also I will clearly label when any sex scenes begin and end; skipping them will just mean that you don't read about people having sex so feel free to do so – I'm only writing them because the story's already M rated so why the hell not?**

It was a six day walk from Lothering to Redcliff and surprisingly uneventful. Alice's group spent the time amicably chatting among each other about their lives and what they had done before the blight. The only relevant topic that came to light was Leliana convincing Alice that looting the corpses of the dead was a part of adventuring "We killed them, so it's only fair that we take their stuff" paraphrased Kallian, who had joined in on the conversation. At camp the group most of the group save for Morrigan and Theron made camp around a single camp fire, Morrigan camped at a small fire she made not too far away and Theron seemed to alternate between them both. Judging from how the two acted around each other, Kallian had started a betting pool as to how long it would take for the two to wind up sharing a tent.

On the last night before they reached Redcliff Alistair pulled Alice aside. "look uh, I have something to tell you…" he began

Trying to make light of it Alice smiled and quipped "If you're leaving me for Theron just say so, I've seen how you look at him"

"What? Ha, very funny. No it's about Arl Eamon; you remember how I said he raised me right? Well the first thing you need to know is that I'm a bastard and before you make another smart comment I mean the fatherless kind – royal actually" Alice was a skilled diplomat – while Elisa had been learning fighting she had been learning politics – but Alistair's revelation that he was royal blood was a shock that she could not hide, seeing her surprise Alistair continued on "you see my mother was a serving girl at Redcliff and my father was king Maric. After I was born they gave me to Arl Eamon to raise until I was sent to the chantry when I was ten."

Alice schooled her face back into a blank mask and accepted the information "Has it occurred to you that with Cailan dead you are next in line for the throne?" she asked

"Maker no! I never wanted to rule over anyone! I like being a grey warden and helping people, I don't want to deal with anything else. So can we please just pretend that I'm still some nobody who was too stupid to die with the rest of the wardens?"

Alice grinned and bowed "As you command… my prince" she teased

"Very funny"

oOo

At about midday the group approached Redcliff castle only to be approached by a distressed peasant "thank the Maker someone has come! Are you the reinforcements that we sent for? Why has no one else come?"

"We're in the middle of a blight man, no one knows you're in trouble" Alice said gently "tell us what's happened"

"Well, the Arl was sick you know, so the Arlessa sent out all the knights to search for a cure, but no one ever found one, then all the sudden one day the gates to the castle closed and that night we found we were under attack by the dead!" the man's voice was frightened and panicky

"When did this begin? Who's in charge here?"

"Three days ago, milady; we've suffered two nights of attacks, Bann Teagan is leading the defenders"

"We'll need to speak with him, where is he?"

"At the chantry, I can take you there"

"I can see it from here, we'll be fine" As the man ran off to attend to other duties that he surely had Alice turned to the group. "Thoughts?" she asked

Alistair was first in "How did this happen?" he asked, clearly in shock "We heard rumors that Arl Eamon had fallen ill back in Lothering but this…"

Leliana was not far behind "We need to help these people" she said "They have no hope of defending themselves alone and I would not want to abandon anyone to such a fate"

When the rest of the group remained silent Alice spoke "We will help these people, I would not have it any other way" she turned to Morrigan but was interrupted by the witch

"Surely you do not intend for us to defend these snivelling idiots?" the witch sneered as Kallian nodded her agreement and Theron added "Why should we help these Shemlen weaklings? My people would never leave our weak without defenses, if they are so foolish then why should we risk our lives and our mission to save them?"

Alice sighed "two reasons: one, they may know what happened to Arl Eamon – who's the most powerful human ally we can befriend at this point I might add and two; Right now we're being called traitors an king slayers, anything we can do to generate goodwill among the people of Ferelden is a great help. Besides" Alice's smile twisted arrogantly to mirror Theron's own "do you honestly think that we would be endangered by an attack that a bunch of villagers managed to hold off twice?" She spoke directly to the three's own arrogance, bringing them around to her way of thinking as effectively as any blood magic her sister might use "Are you honestly that uncertain of your abilities?"

The three looked at each other and shrugged; the woman did have a point. As they set off for the Chantry Leliana went over to speak with Alice "I have to wonder what your reason for aiding these people is; the tactical reason or the moral one?"

Alice shrugged "Both, neither; I honestly don't know what I would have done if saving the village had been a bad choice, and I'm not sure I want to know. I didn't have to choose between the greater and lesser good today and that's enough for me"

oOo

Having met Teagan – who actually recognized Alistair after he made a joke about seeing him last all covered in mud. The group hashed out how to best prepare for the coming battle. After some deliberation Alice decided to send Leliana to talk the village blacksmith into repairing armor for the militia, Alistair went up to the path to see if the remaining knights in Redcliff needed anything, Theron, she sent out to see if he could find a young boy that had run off earlier that day; Alice had met the Dalish before and knew that for all his hostility to adult humans – which actually wasn't all that much considering the usual Dalish attitude – his people valued children far too much for him ever to treat a young boy badly and hoped that the stoic warrior might be able to impress the child into staying with his sister. Kallian, Morrigan and herself went out to see if anyone was hiding in the abandoned houses, such people were most likely hardened soldiers if they had survived two nights already and would be a great help if they could be persuaded to join the militia.

All four endeavours turned out to be successful; Leliana managed to talk the blacksmith into making armor before he managed to take a second swig of his drink after letting her in, Theron found the boy easily enough once he figured out where the boy's home was and the reputation of his people as warriors was more than enough to awe a single boy, Alice found a dwarf with a couple of body guards and with Morrigan and Kallian's help convinced them to join up with the militia. The only issue to be had was that Alistair had difficulty convincing the revered mother into blessing some amulets to boost the knights' morale, however Alice managed to talk the mother around and had the amulets delivered in no time.

Once that was done they spent a few hours preparing for the night ahead. Theron laid some snares around the paths that the villagers said the dead attacked from, Morrigan brewed some healing poultices that the villagers could use if injured, the rest worked with the villagers and taught them different combat techniques; Alice and Kallian taught some of the women and smaller men how to use their speed to their advantage, Alistair taught the main body of the militia some shield techniques and Leliana tried to improve the archery of those that had bows. And then the night was upon them

There were two paths that the dead attacked from; the path to Redcliff castle and from the lake, just in front of the chantry. The militia guarded against attacks from the lake and the knights held the path. Keeping in mind that the knights specialized in melee and the militia had more archers than anything else Alice took Alistair, Kallian and George with her to guard the docks and put Theron in charge of holding the path with Leliana and Morrigan.

oOo

The attack began shortly after sundown.

While Alice didn't quite understand how the undead could be killed just like any man, save for the fact that they were immune to poison, she did not complain; it was this fact alone that allowed her and her companions to survive. Because there were several paths between the lake and the Chantry square, she, Alistair and Kallian were forced to spilt up; each holding a third of the semi-circle that dead could attack from, while they were supported by the militia, they were the primary defense and where treated as such. On the path Theron, Leliana and Morrigan unleashed devastation from a distance while the knights dispatched the few undead that got close enough to attack them. The attack lasted for most of the night, with the villagers relying heavily on the wardens to keep them alive.

And then it was over.

At about two hours after midnight the last of the undead had been dispatched and no more came to attack. Unwilling to risk that there may be more later many of the villagers and knights chose to stay awake on watch but the wardens chose to retire to the chantry to get some rest; tomorrow they would enter castle Redcliff and if what they faced tonight was any indicator they would need all the rest they could get.

oOo

"My friends, the sun has risen and we are all still here" Bann Teagan called out before the villagers from the chantry steps as he faced the wardens "And for that we have these brave wardens to thank" he handed them an expensive looking helmet "we present to you the helm of my grandfather; may you put it to good use. Come, let us go to the castle and purge that evil that caused this" with that he started walking toward the path to Redcliff castle.

"There's a secret passage into the castle that's only known to the family" Teagan said as they stepped onto the small plateau where Morrigan and the two archers had held the path against the dead "I didn't want to use it while the villagers needed my help but with you here-" The sound of a woman, running down the path, calling out Teagan's name cut him off.

"Isolde? What's going on?" Teagan clearly knew the woman and was quite surprised to see her

"You need to come to the castle" the woman, Isolde, said "Connor-" she broke down sobbing

Alice recalled what she knew about the Guerrein family "Connor? Your son? What's wrong with him?"

Isolde ignored her "Teagan, I'm begging you, please trust me, you need to come with me to the castle"

Theron frowned "Even a shem like you cannot be so stupid as to walk into such an obvious trap"

Teagan turned to the wardens "Trap it may be, I must do this. Here" he handed Alice his signet ring "the passage way into the castle is in the windmill over there, I will try to keep the attention of whatever is in the castle. Remember, Eamon is the priority here, everyone else, Isolde, Connor, myself, we are all expandable"

Alice nodded "I shall"

Without another word Teagan followed Isolde up the path into the castle. Once they were out of sight Alice led the wardens into the windmill.

While the passage in the windmill was traversable, it was dark and cramp. Upon seeing it, Theron frowned and – for the first time since Alice had met him – hesitated. For a moment Alice thought that she would have to say something, but Theron quickly mastered himself and entered the passage, muttering something about getting the hell out of there if he saw a mirror. George however, was unable to enter the passage due to the ladder and so was left to make sure nothing came up behind them; a paranoid decision but one that was excusable considering they had come seeking an audience with an Arl and found an undead invasion.

Upon exiting the passage the wardens found a trio of undead attempting to reach through a cell door to kill the man inside. They drew their weapons and slew the undead without any difficulty. Once they were dead the man called out "Hello? Who's there?"

Alice turned to him "I am Alice, of the grey wardens" she said "Who are you? Why are you locked up like this?"

"I'm Jowan" the man introduced himself, upon hearing the name Alistair frowned "I'm an apostate that the Arlessa hired to teach her son in private, once this all started however she locked me down here, accusing me of poisoning Arl Eamon and inviting the evil into the castle"

Kallian raised an eyebrow "And did you?"

"No! I didn't invite anything in I've been down here since before it began"

Alice jumped in "I thought you said she locked you up after this started, does that mean you poisoned Arl Eamon?"

"Well, I was on the run from the Templars and they cornered me. I was about to get executed when Teryn Loghain showed up and rescued me; he told me that Arl Eamon was a threat to the kingdom and had to be dealt with, what was I supposed to do? Anyways after Ostagar I panicked and got caught, I was locked down here and then a few days later the Arlessa came down here with some guards and demanded that I undo what I had done, I didn't know anything about it before then"

Alice turned to Morrigan "Can you tell if he invited this thing in?"

"There is some traces of Demonic taint on his aura, but it is fairly old, I do not think that he has bargained with a demon recently, certainly he is not responsible for what has happened here"

"What about Connor? You said that you were hired to train him, does that mean that he is a mage?"

This realization took Alistair by surprise "Connor? A mage?"

"Yes milady, I was hired to teach him but didn't get far before I was locked up"

"Could he have done this?"

"Not on purpose, he barely has any control right now, but he may have accidentally sundered the Veil"

Alice nodded "Ok, I'm going to let you out of your cell and you're going to help us fix this"

Before Jowan could say anything Alistair cried out "Wait! When I was at the tower, there was a blood mage named Jowan who escaped, he nearly got Solona and Neira killed"

Alice turned to Jowan "Is it true?"

"Yes, milady, I thought that it would make me a better mage, it was such a stupid mistake. Are Solona and Neira ok?"

"Only because I recruited them into the grey wardens!" Snapped Alistair "When I got there they were seconds away from being killed!"

Alice laid a hand on Alistair "Calm down Alistair, they're ok and Jowan can help us" she turned to Jowan "This changes nothing; you're still coming with us"

Leliana spoke up "This man has made mistakes and seeks to atone for them, letting him help us would be best" and the others murmured their assent

Jowan quietly asked "Do I have a choice? I'd really rather not come with you, it looks dangerous"

Alice rounded on him, reaching between the bars to grab him by his collar, pulling him against the bars and pressing a dagger against his ribs with her other hand "You can come with us or you can die here" her voice was eerily calm the entire time.

"I-I'll come than" Jowan stuttered

Alice picked the lock "I hereby conscript you into the grey wardens; make a wrong move and you're dead"

oOo

They fought their way into the courtyard if the castle with little difficulty; the halls had been plagued by undead but nothing that they could not handle. Jowan's blood magic was powerful but seemed to be limited when facing bloodless creatures such as the undead. He had proved quite formidable when facing the shades that they had found in the chantry and the crazed mabaris that they had found in the kennels; however against the undead Alice had thought that he was weak as a traditional mage until Morrigan had commented on his skill. That had forced Alice to acknowledge that she had met four mages in her life and all were incredibly powerful _I've been spoiled for magic _she thought wirily.

The courtyard seemed to be empty but they had already seen the dead rise up on them several times and so decided to move cautiously. They barely stepped into the courtyard when the dead rose up. Alice was pulled across the courtyard by an unseen force; she found herself on her back as a powerful looking undead brought its sword down toward her. She rolled out of the way, the sword missing her by an inch. Both mages and archers attacked the creature, forcing it back a couple inches and giving Alice the time she needed to get to her feet. The arrows seemed to have had no effect on it so the archers turned to support Alistair as he engaged the group of undead that had risen up on the stair while Kallian moved to assist Alice. Morrigan unleashed a hex that weakened and slowed the undead and cried out "Revenant!"

The revenant attacked Alice, swinging its sword toward her head, she dodged and attempted to stab it but was blocked by its shield; it was so fast, even with the hexes and curses that Jowan and Morrigan were piling on it, if they didn't end this soon then Alice was a dead woman. Alice circled around so the revenant's back was to the rest of the courtyard, giving Kallian the chance to sneak up behind the thing. When she did so however, the revenant spun around incredibly quickly and blocked her attack, nearly killing her; Kallian was knocked back but seeing her chance, Alice struck. She stabbed forward with her dagger, deliberately staying on the rights side of the revenant's body; her gamble paid off and when the creature spun to block her attack she was able to parry with her sword. The force of the blow vibrated all down her arm and her sword all but shattered but it gave her the time she needed; her dagger pierced the undead's heart and it collapsed. Not wanting to risk the thing getting up, Alice raised her sword to cut of the revenant's head but when she struck the sword bounced off its neck armor and shattered.

The last of the skeletons on the steps were defeated so Jowan walked over and set the corpse aflame, clearly not wanting it to get up any more than she did. Alice stared at the hilt of her broken sword "You know, if this is just a taste of what's to come then from now on I'm going to carry two swords, even if I can only use one"

"Tis a good idea, especially if we run into more revenants" Morrigan approached them just ahead of the others

Alice looked up "Right, what was that thing?"

"A revenant; the corpse of a powerful mage possessed by an even more powerful demon. Thankfully, the only reason that they're encountered at all is because they are so hard to kill; few mages with such power are not cremated and fewer demons of such power are given the chance to possess them"

"Well that's a relief" Alice looked at the sword the revenant dropped and picked it up; it was obviously of good quality – good enough to all but shatter the red steel blade that her parents had bought her for her 20th birthday – perhaps it was made of dragonbone? Whatever had been used to make it, it was light, hard and sharp; she would replace her sword with it and at first opportunity she would add another sword to her weapons, making sure she wouldn't risk finding herself without a sword again.

The group entered the main hall to confront the evil and found… Teagan dancing?

Teagan was dancing about like a jester, making insensible comments like a fool. There were several guards standing about, Alice looked at Jowan and raised her eyebrows, he immediately replied to her unspoken question "Blood magic"

Alice nodded and turned her attention to the front of the hall. In front of the fire was a young boy that matched all she had heard about Connor "Look mother, we have guests" he said in a deep voice that screamed possession "Are these the people that stopped me from retaking my village?"

"Y-yes Connor" Isolde, who was standing beside him, said clearly terrified.

"Why are you here?" Connor demanded, turning to face Alice "Are you here to stop me?"

"Yes" with that Alice flung a dagger towards Connor, aiming for his head. Without even turning she flicked a second blade into the throat of a nearby guard "Jowan, knock Teagan out of it!" she called out as the others killed the remaining guards. Once that was done she turned her attention to the center of the room and smiled; her knife had done exactly what she wanted.

Connor was gone from the room, probably fled after suffering such a deep cut to his face, her knife was lying beside the great hall's fireplace with Connor's blood gleaming on the blade. She grabbed the knife and turned to Jowan, who was helping Teagan to his feet "Can you preserve this blood?" she asked, handing the dagger to Jowan

"I can but why?" Jowan asked, clearly mystified by the question but he took the dagger and began working his magic anyways

"Correct if I'm wrong but Connor's an abomination yes?" when he nodded Isolde broke down into hysteria, ignoring the woman Alice continued "But we can save him if we send a mage into the fade and kill the demon right?" Jowan nodded again and Isolde stopped crying and instead started frantically begging for them to save her son.

Morrigan frowned "But we have no way to enter the fade do we? Such a thing would require a considerable amount of lyrium and a number of mages, neither of which we have"

Jowan hesitated then jumped in "I know a ritual that substitutes lyrium with blood, but it takes a lot of blood, all of it in fact"

"Then I volunteer" Isolde stood up "It was my mistake that got Connor possessed, if it takes my life to save him then let it be so"

"That will be plan B" Alice said "My sister is a powerful blood mage and she has a unique ability that allows her to enter the fade at will, if we can get this blood to her she can use it to locate the demon and kill it"

"But your sister is at the tower" Theron looked tired, as if facing that he would have to kill either a child or let this woman die

"Yes" Alice turned to Teagan "Do you have any horses?"

Teagan nodded "I can take you to the stables"

Alice grinned "Ok, here's the plan; I'll take the dagger and a horse and try to get to my sister, if nothing happens in six days or it looks like Connor is going to cause trouble then preform the ritual, Morrigan will enter the fade. If I can get to my sister then she'll kill the demon, it's only two day's ride to the tower but the demon may be cunning so don't assume success until you hear from us, understood?" They all nodded, she turned to Teagan "Take me to the stables"

Five minutes later she was riding like the Archdemon itself was at her back, hoping to make it to the tower in time, praying that the demon would not force their hand by manifesting fully and forcing her companions to kill a child.

**A/N I'd assume that Isolde would react differently to Jowan saving her brother-in-law then just popping up after the battle so I got rid of her outburst.**

**Also, I was looking at the map of Ferelden and realized that the 4 days to the circle thing was ridiculous so I'll change that when I get the chance – I'm just really lazy and don't want to do it right now, it's also why it took six days to reach Redcliff**

**Anyways thanks for reading and as always please review**


	13. Chapter 10

**A/N I take what I said about Elisa and Neira getting their asses kicked back. While it is by far the hardest fight that they've faced but they do win, albeit not without repercussions.**

**On that note I'm going to make a side note of how massive magical exertions in my story will affect the physical appearance of the mage in a manner related to the magic they used **

_The child was more powerful than he had imagined._

_At the last moment before he consumed her utterly, the child resisted. It was too late for the child to block his access into its mortal mind but that did not mean that there was no hope. The child showed a force of will that had not been seen since the rise of Tevinter and fought him. It was beyond the skill of any mortal to force him from a body that he did not wish to leave but that did not mean he could control it. In the moment that he should have gained a mage's body he found himself facing an equal. For the first time he felt his mind laid bare as he laid bare the mind of this _child _– such a deceptive term – as he had so many before. The demon spiraled out of the fade and into the mortal realm, into the body of the child, meeting this incredible mortal in battle for the control of the body they both prized above all else._

__oOo

Elisa sprang into action the moment the black vials left the abomination's hand, drawing Silence and Loss in a blur of motion. The second the first revenant sprang into being she threw Loss towards the creature's head, killing it; she drew Blood in her now-empty right hand and dashed towards the remaining three revenants. Neira launched a mix of hexes and curses that would slow and weaken the revenants before turning her attention to the sloth abomination; she sensed that the creature was gathering its power to curse Elisa and herself as she had done the three revenants. As the abomination launched the curses Neira blocked it before attacking the creature directly. Elisa stood at the center of a circle made by the three revenants, blocking and dodging their attacks with incredible speed as well as making some attacks of her own; she was using a considerable amount of magic, not only to enhance her speed and strength but also to reinforce Blood and Silence and prevent them from breaking under to powerful attacks of the undead.

Elisa was using holding Blood in the center, not only using the edged side but the staff one as well to defend herself from the attacks, essentially giving her weapon for each of the revenants. But the powerful undead were incredibly fast and powerful and were easily blocking her attacks and delivering a brutal amount of their own, with Neira occupied with the abomination they would eventually wear her down and kill her and that was something she could not allow. Elisa reached deeper into herself and gathered more power to bring forth, feeling the exertion as the magic ran along her skin, changing her.

Neira was locked in battle with the abomination, struggling to push the demon back and gain the upper hand, casting and blocking spell after spell. But the abomination had the strength of so many to draw upon and appeared to have possessed a senior enchanter, judging from the robes it wore; Neira found herself faltering, unable to find more mana to draw upon. She quickly took a drink from a lyrium potion she had on her, careful not to distract herself from the spell battle; such a mistake would surely be fatal.

One of the revenants managed to get through her defense enough to give her a minor cut on her arm and Elisa made a split-second decision; surely she could spare a little blood. And anyways the cut proved that she would not be able to last much longer; she would have to turn the tide and soon.

Neira drained the last of her lyrium potions; she was down to her last bit of energy; unless the abomination was more drained than she had thought then it would soon overpower and kill her, then finish Elisa. Neira prepared to make her final push, hoping that she could at least weaken the demon, allowing her friends to escape the demon's trap and carry on without them when she heard to call of the staff in her hand. Neira knew that the staff had power but had been unaware that it had knowledge; maybe it knew something that would allow them to win…

Neira's curses had worn off and the revenants attacked with even greater speed. Elisa knew that if they killed her then Neira and their friends would be next and so reached for her deepest, darkest source of power, giving her the speed and strength she needed but also taking an incalculable risk and plunging the circle into even greater danger; for the first time it was possible that the demons would be able to overpower the Templars and escape.

At first Neira recoiled at the thought of using such power; she had been taught to hate and fear it her whole life and despite what she had said to Elisa it was a very different thing when the idea of her using it came to mind. She glanced over at her friend, not needing to see the demon for the spell she was casting and frowned; while she did not know the combat magic that was Elisa's bread and butter but she knew magic and surely that level of speed augmentation was beyond the power of any mage, no matter how desperate. She did a quick probe and saw where Elisa had gotten this power, saw the apostate's deepest, most hidden secret and above all saw the danger that the circle – all of Ferelden truly – was in now; failure was no longer an option, not by any measure. Placing her arm on the small blade her staff had – obviously made for this very reason – she slit her wrist and the magic came.

One of the reasons dreamers, observers and even spirit healers was so feared was their connection to the fade and what it represented; not only did they face a greater risk from possession, as they were more open to the fade, but also the same affinity they had to the fade made all fade-based magics more powerful and there was no magic more fade-based than blood magic. Neira could have used the power to easily crush the abomination but instead she forced her way into its mind, freeing her friends form its trap before draining it of all its power and blood for her own use. She then turned the magic to the three revenants, slowing and weakening them until they were almost as slow as a regular human, she probably could have gotten them slower had Elisa not killed them all less than a second after she began her attack; such was the power that Elisa could draw on. With their enemies defeated and their friends now in a normal sleep that they could be woken up from Elisa and Neira collapsed to the ground, exhausted beyond measure and in need of a few minutes of rest before facing the next task.

Eventually Neira pulled herself up and turned to ask Elisa what the fuck she had been thinking but was shocked by the sudden change in appearance. Before the battle Elisa had had blonde hair and blue eyes, now her eyes were a piercing violet and her hair…

Her hair defied what Neira knew about the effects of magic on the body; it should have been a pure white, reflecting the use of intense magic. Instead it was raven, as black as the vials that had contained the revenants. Neira blinked; she had thought that she had known what magic Elisa had been doing but this clearly implied that she had been wrong and furthermore she had no idea what could have caused her hair to go pitch black – what kind of magic manifested itself as black?

Catching the look on Neira's face Elisa chuckled "Based on your expression I think we both need to look into the mirror"

Neira groaned "What happened to me?"

"Hair's as white as snow, me?"

"Violet eyes, Raven hair"

"Violet… Red from blood magic mixed with my original blue I guess, but Raven hair? What the…" Elisa's voice trailed off and eyes suddenly went wide as she realized something "Oh fuck" all the blood had drained from her face, leaving her a pale as a sheet; whatever she had realized had scared her. Seeing the woman who had taken on four revenants without blinking get this scared made Neira absolutely terrified.

"What the hell did you do?" she demanded

"Not sure exactly, I have an idea but it's a long story; suffice to say I pushed myself further than I realized and this is the result" Elisa got up off the ground and headed towards a mirror that was suspiciously clean for a room filled with blood. Now that Neira thought about it she realized that there had been far more blood in the room before the battle; now it was almost gone – even the organs that were piled up by the abomination were all but dried up. Catching Neira's look Elisa shrugged "I used blood magic for over an hour; if this place hadn't been so covered in blood I'd be dead"

Neira raised an eyebrow "You can use the blood of those around you?"

"I need my own blood to be shed to get the magic going but once that's done any blood that's been separated from its body works; blood in a living body is a bit trickier, you have to take the person's mind or get their consent first" Elisa was looking at herself in the mirror now, she frowned and muttered "Never been this bad before" before opening a flask containing a lyrium potion and taking a large drink. She muttered something else, too quiet for Neira to hear and then _something _– if it was magic then it was nothing Neira had ever seen before – rippled along her skin.

Neira gasped, whatever Elisa had done had undone the changes that magic had done to her body, her hair was blonde once more and her eyes were their normal blue and even a little bit lighter than they had been before; there had been a darkness in them that Neira had not noticed while it had been there, but its absence drew her attention to it. What she had done was not without cost however; Elisa was leaning heavily on the pillar next to the mirror, bent over in pain and swearing in half a dozen different languages. "What was that?"

"Mix of a Templar and creation magic; Templar power removes the residue magic that changed the body in the first place and creation spell restores the body to its original state." Elisa gasped "Before you ask, no it can't do it to you and I doubt that I can teach you either; the magic has to come from within or else the traces are protected by your own flesh and Templar abilities are based on a warrior's discipline, even if they are magic" She regained herself enough to take a drink of lyrium potion again, it seemed to help her and she stood up fully, no longer in an apparent distress.

"Wait, you can use Templar power? But you're a mage!"

"Templar power is magic, Neira; did you think that Templars drew their power from the Maker or something? Why do you think they drink lyrium? Because it gives them a buzz?" Elisa walked over to the first revenant had been killed and was taking Loss out of the formerly undead corpse's head "In all fairness however, I can't use a holy smite; magic, whatever its form, is drawn through the body and trying to channel such anti-magic power through a mage's body…" Elisa shuddered "I learned Templar powers to learn to shield against them actually; I nearly got exposed as a mage when a Templar smited a mage I was attacking, the only reason I didn't wind up in a circle after that was I passed the effects off as the result of a spell he cast. So I got an ex-Templar in Kirkwall to teach me their abilities – Samson I think his name was – and learned how to use and – as a result – block Templar tricks. I can teach you blocking if you want but it's tricky; you have to draw all your power into yourself in order to do it – you can't cast any spells when defending against Templar magic"

"You can block Templar tricks? Of course I want to learn! How come no one's ever figured out how to block them before?"

Elisa shrugged "Probably someone has, but they were most likely a life-long apostate since you have to know Templar magic to figure out how to block it and if their children weren't mages then they wouldn't have risked exposure to teach others; I know I haven't" Neira accepted the answer and went to look in the mirror as Elisa started waking their companions.

Neira stared into the mirror; previously her hair had been a dirty blonde that had been going lighter and lighter in recent years as she came into her full power, now it was fully white. She shrugged; it wasn't like this wouldn't have happened eventually as it was and the white hair actually went well with her pale skin and green eyes, she would live and anyways now was not the time to moan about her appearance, they had demons to kill. She went to help Elisa wake the others up.

oOo

"See? Already they succumb to the demons! And these two haven't even been up there yet! You cannot allow corrupted mages to live! You must kill them all!"

Neira massaged her left temple, wishing they could spare the energy it would take to break through Cullen's cage and _shut him up_. First the Templar had nearly reduced Solona to tears by calling his former lover a monster and now he wouldn't stop ranting about how all mages who had so much as heard about blood magic needed to die, the fact that whatever Uldred was doing up there had caught her and Clara off guard and they needed a second to recover hadn't encouraged him to _be quiet_. Of course it was probably because they were suffering from the press of demons in their heads. Neira had always been sensitive to demons; her powerful connection to the fade made her a prime target. But now that she had used blood magic it had gotten so much worse, the whisper of demons in her ear that had plagued her since her magic first came to be was now a roar the vibrated her skull. The power of blood and dreams did not come without a price, one that was extracted in the need for constant vigilance; the mixture of powers made her a shining beacon to any demon who would seek her out.

Of course it wasn't all the price of her new power; Uldred was calling every demon in a huge area for whatever he was up to and they were all feeling it. Clara was as bad, if not worse, then she was and even unshakeable Solona was feeling the effects. Only Wynne and Elisa were untouched by the force of the demon's call.

Suddenly Clara lurched to her feet, drawing a knife from her robes and headed down the stairs "I'm going to shut him up" she snarled, heading for Cullen's prison "I'm going break through that prison and I'm going to snap his puritan neck" Neira smiled, that sounded like a good idea. They really should kill the stupid Templar; he was such an arrogant ass, unable to shut up about needing to kill innocents just because they were mages, going on about how they were all corrupted by demons, he'd even made Solona _cry_. That asshole needed to die. She rose up to join Clara. Wynne moved to go after them but Elisa stopped the old woman with a raised arm, blocking her path.

"What good will that accomplish?" Elisa called out to them

"He doesn't deserve to live!" Neira was not sure which one of them said the words but knew they were both thinking the same thing.

"And what has that to do with anything?" The question had a mild tone to it, as if Elisa was asking an academic question, not whether someone's right to live was relevant "He's not important, he's just a stupid Templar, stuffed with chantry propaganda until there's nothing left in his skull but what the priests say. What is important is proving him wrong; right now you're proving him right, you're showing us how you don't deserve freedom, because all you'll do is be subject to your own desires" Elisa's voice had changed, it now reminded Neira of how Mouse's had sounded when she had observed Solona's harrowing, feeding on their own pride. _Blood magic_ Neira thought in the back of her mind _This girl uses blood magic to prove mages can be trusted it's… _Glorious. She could barely keep herself from laughter as Elisa continued "You are powerful enough to become grey warden's, you are better than this, so prove it"

As Elisa finished Neira realized that the call was nearly gone, pushed back to the edge of her mind, no longer a threat to her or Clara. Now that they were free Neira was horrified that she had been so ready to give in to the demons in order to kill Cullen, Clara looked similarly horrified. Neira turned to Elisa and Wynne "How did you stand against that so easily?" she asked "Both of you have a powerful connection to the fade; you should have suffered far more than Solona or even Clara. You should have felt the call of the demons almost as strong as I did but you stood untouched, how did you do that?"

Wynne hesitated, as if she was afraid of what conclusion they might come to. Elisa, however just shrugged "Practice" she said simply "I've been practicing this magic for far longer than you have and this is not the first time I've been somewhere where the veil is so thin; it's a skill that will come with practice, I'll teach you when this is done" This was a statement of fact; Neira and Clara would learn how to defend against demons better at the first opportunity "For now stay close to me, I can hold off the call"

Clara looked nervously at Elisa, obviously fearful of what had almost happened "What happens if you go down?"

Without a word Elisa handed her and Neira each a vial of poison before heading up the stairs to face what Uldred had become.

**A/N I'd like to think I'm pissing people off with all these cliffhangers b/c that means I'm doing a good job. I actually meant to have the final battle in this chapter but it was getting too long – again – and I had the chance to end it so I did. Also I thought that this way I could switch over to the others perspectives since Elisa and Neira are getting too much stage time, yes Elisa is the main character in this story and Neira's not too far behind but the other characters matter too. Anyways next chapter Alice will reach the tower, Uldred will be defeated and the demon in Connor will be dealt with. Truth be told I actually considered letting them fail and have the guys at Redcliff be forced to kill Connor or Isolde but decided against it – that being said there will be complications, to what extent I'm not sure however.**

**Secondly I just realized I vanished the dog again – I keep forgetting about him – and will need to revise chapter 9 at some point. Until I do that let's just say that he was at Redcliff but couldn't enter the tunnel which is why he wasn't at the fight in the courtyard, also he stayed there when Alice high-tailed it to the circle – I can't imagine her taking a dog when speed is of such importance.**

**Thirdly while I've got some ideas about where I want this story to go I find myself frustrated by not having anyone to bounce my ideas off – nobody I know personally likes fan fiction and DA. While I may get a beta at some point if someone wants to listen to my ideas or give me some suggestions of their own then drop a review or a PM and I'll reply**

**Which reminds me that I owe Nimatar an apology, he was the first person to review me and I never really acknowledged it, sorry about that buddy, I'm really bad with that sort of stuff.**

**Also a belated thanks to everyone who favorites or follows me; you encourage me to keep writing!**

**Tldr; Everything from this arc wraps up next chapter or two and thanks for reading, please review**


	14. Chapter 11

**A/N So contrary to what my previous chapters implied Duran and Natia are not capable of being in two places at the same time, they're at the circle and I went back to correct that.**

Alice rode

She rode as fast as the horse allowed, fearing that each second she delayed would be a second too many. She feared that the demon might fully manifest, making no possible outcome save Connor's death, she feared that the preservation spell might wear off, or that the slight imperfection would make the blood too little for her sister to use.

Above all she feared that she had been too kind and had doomed her friends.

oOo

Elisa was down.

It had been the first blow of the battle; Uldred had taunted her about her one great weakness and then launched a spell at her at the same time that Elisa threw Blood like a spear toward Uldred. Uldred's attack had worked, Elisa's had not; Blood would have killed him had he not transformed into a pride abomination at the last moment, Blood struck his leg instead of his heart. Elisa fell to her knees, desperately fighting whatever Uldred had done to her.

Moving as one Duran and Sten raised their blades, not aiming for the abominations but instead for Neira and Clara. Thankfully they choose to look to Solona for conformation before killing such powerful allies, even more fortunate was that Solona was able to give the negative; Wynne had wrapped herself in power and was holding the demons off. They just had to deal with the abominations before she failed.

oOo

Without and within Elisa fought.

She fought with one foot in the fade and one foot in the mortal world; keeping the demons out of herself as she was attacked from both fronts battling for everything she was worth. With luck Wynne would be able to keep the others safe but anything Wynne could do would be too late for her if she faltered.

And if it was too late for her then it would likely be too late for them all.

oOo

Alice was a few hours away from the circle when a bandit shot her horse.

It wasn't a very good shot and under normal conditions the wound would have been a minor inconvenience. But Alice had been riding the horse at a two day to collapse pace for 36 hours now and the arrow was the breaking point for the poor creature; the horse collapsed.

Alice's agility saved her and she rolled away when the horse hit the ground. She drew her blades and readied herself for the upcoming fight; she could not let this delay her for long.

A child's life depended on her.

oOo

If anyone could go toe to toe with a fully transformed Pride demon and slug it out it was Sten. The giant faced off Uldred, dodging, blocking and even just taking the demon's blows while dealing his own in equal measure. Duran and Natia worked together alongside Clara as the three dealt with the lesser abominations that followed Uldred, slowly wearing the horde down.

While Solona was equipped for close combat she did not engage just yet, instead using her defensive spells to aid Sten while Neira weakened Uldred.

And yet it was not enough.

The demon was so powerful that despite the powerful support of the two mages combined and the raw strength of the Sten against him he continued to persevere. Slowly Sten weakened and was pushed back, slowly the tide of the battle turned until Sten was just a little too slow and a blow to the head knocked him out.

oOo

_You cannot win._

The voice whispered in Elisa's ear as she desperately fought for the control of her body, the despairing voice made all the more dark by the fact that the demon was right; even with all her power, all her skill she could not hold off the demons for much longer. She could hold off the attack from within – she had she had an unmatched advantage – and the attack from without would normally have been laughable; but both together were more than she could handle. Soon she would fall to the demon's attack and then her failure would doom both her friends and the circle. At best.

Suddenly an idea occurred to Elisa; desperate and a huge gamble, this plan was hinged on the hope that her own fortitude was greater than that of her attackers' and that the damage she did to herself would not be so great that she lost her advantage within. But she had no better idea and if she did nothing she would surely fail.

She drew the power of a Templar's smite through her body and back on herself.

oOo

Stepping over the body of the last of the bandits, Alice sheathed her weapons and began looking around; with luck her would be robbers had had been successful enough to steal at least one horse.

There

A horse was tied to a tree; it looked more like a plow horse than the rider she had been using but it was a horse and better yet it seemed to be fresh.

Perfect.

Alice untied the horse and set off on the trail once more; spurring the horse into as much of a gallop as such a creature was capable of. The good thing was that they only had to ride a few more hours; she could push the animal as far as it could go.

She would not lose any time from this attack.

oOo

Seeing Sten fall Duran broke off from where Natia and Clara where dispatching the abominations. For the time being it appeared that they need not worry about Uldred making any more; whatever Wynne was doing appeared to preventing any demons from affecting the mages during his previous attempts. Duran faced Uldred down as Solona wrapped him in shields to better his chances against the demon, as he was doing so Natia and Clara finished off the last of the abominations and came up behind Uldred to assist. The unconsciously devised plan for Natia to hamstring the monster while Duran distracted it and the mages aided them was ruined when Uldred kicked backwards, toward Natia. Sometimes size does matter and Natia's short legs could not get her away from Uldred's kick in time; she was sent flying into Clara and the two smashed into a broken pillar and were knocked unconscious. Duran seized the opportunity to deal a grievous wound to Uldred but found himself compromised as the abomination recovered quicker than he thought possible. Uldred grabbed him and threw him towards Neira; taking them both down. Before he passed out Duran felt Neira cast one last spell before falling into unconsciousness.

He felt himself fall into darkness, joining her.

It was all up to Solona now

oOo

The pain was even greater then she had imagined.

Elisa had both smited and been smited and would not like to repeat the experience of either. What she had not realized was that not only did a smite cause incredible pain, it also left the target vulnerable to further attacks; bringing the smite back down on herself was not simply a repeat of the pain of channeling it but rather twice as devastating.

Fortunately the same was true for the demons; the ones in the fade had all either fled or been killed outright – she doubted they would return any time soon. She mentally surveyed the damage she had done to herself and was dismayed; she would not be able to enter the fade safely for a week or so and would be limited to her weaker spells as a result.

She pushed the information aside and turned to face what remained of the attack from within.

The battle was not done yet.

oOo

Solona faced down Uldred alone; the only help she had was the curse Neira had placed on the demon before passing out; if it wore out before she killed him she was dead. Drawing Oathbreaker and her shield Solona faced down the monster; he had been wounded in both legs, once by Blood and once by Duran, hopefully she could use that to win.

She charged him and they clashed; Solona used all the spells she had at her disposal to keep him at bay as they fought, desperately seeking an opening before Neira's spell wore off. She retreated for a moment and drew the earth up beneath her launching it at Uldred. He deflected it and sent it flying off into a corner of the chamber, shattering a strange phylactery, but it knocked him back and gave her the opening she needed.

She charged towards him, shield raised and sword at the ready. He pulled his arm back and threw a punch but to put some power behind her shield and deflected it; throwing him further off balance and knocking him back, exposing his chest. She leapt up, driving her Oathbreaker into his heart before yanking it out and plunging it into his eye, killing him.

With Uldred's death Wynne released the spell "I won't be doing that to entertain children I think" was all she said before collapsing, exhausted beyond measure.

"Well done!" came a voice behind Solona, who turned to face the speaker "I knew you could do it! I knew that you were strong enough to kill Uldred and save the circle!" Irving continued "I've known since the moment you came here that you would rise above the rest, succeeding where others had failed. I'm glad that the wardens saved you; you're too great to be trapped in here. You alone did not succumb to the lures of blood magic and you will show the world the power of a good mage!" His voice stroked her ego, filling her heart with pride. She smiled, then frowned: Irving never praised mages like this; he said too big an ego was dangerous, too much pride…

Solona tensed, ready for another fight "Nice try mouse"

In an instant Irving transformed, taking the form a pride demon "Then I will take you by force!" Solona felt the power of the demon and despaired; she was too tired, there was no way that she could defeat another greater pride demon.

Suddenly Blood flew through the air like a spear, piercing Mouse's heart. It was quickly followed by Silence and Loss, who flew into the demon's eyes. Solona turned around to see Elisa standing over Uldred's body beside the real Irving "I don't make the same mistake twice" was all she said.

**A/N so a bit of a shorter chapter, mainly because I thought that was a great place to end the chapter and because it think that one of the biggest fight scenes in this story deserved its own chapter. Next chapter will be wrapping up the Redcliff and circle arcs and watching a desire demon try to get inside Neira's small clothes. Zevran will show up soon along with initiating the Soldier's peak and return to Ostagar DLCs – that being said return to Ostagar will not happen for a while – Soldier's peak on the other hand… I have some fun ideas, not to mention a chance to play with how ruthless some of my characters can be.**

**Also I (along with Clara, Neira, Isolde, Connor and by extension, Eamon) would like to thank Latindragon for helping me figure out how to keep everybody alive through this chapter without making it seem like a "the author wills it, so let it be" plot point. And also for betaing for me**

**Anyways thanks for reading and as always please review**


	15. Chapter 12

**A/N Bit of NSFW in this chapter – I'll mark it out for you so you can skip it if you want, I'll warn you that the implications at the end of the first scene are very dark, very brutal. You know when you find something and you watch it or read it or whatever and you think it's awesome and then you realize how fucked it is? That's what's it was like for me writing the first NSFW scene. I never intended for any of my characters to be capable of what she does and for the most part they aren't – that's the dangers of fucking with someone's head I guess.**

**Also thanks to Nimatar for letting me know that had been eating the asterisks that I've been using to mark a change of scene – that'll show me not to check the previews – and to latindragon for helping me with a bit of plot, can't really say more at the moment without giving myself away.**

**And to everybody who favorite, follows, reviews or even just reads this – I love you all! **

Neira swore that no matter what happened she would never, ever ask if a day could get any worse. She had asked herself that question an hour ago, after getting her arm broken by a flying dwarf and now she was in the fade, using three different types of forbidden magic to save an abomination while her body lay in the circle tower. With a Templar on the other side of the door.

It was tempting to ask how it could get worse but she really didn't want to know. Neira sighed

It had all started right after they got to the bottom of the tower and Irving had declared the circle saved. Cullen, the self-righteous asshole, had ranted on about how the mages could be corrupted and Elisa had told him to shut it. It had seemed like things where winding down when Alice had dashed in looking for her sister, needing her to go into the fade to save Arl Eamon's son. Unfortunately Elisa couldn't go into the fade for some reason and so the task had fallen to her. And here she was.

Neira sighed again; she might as well get this over with. Elisa had taught her how to use blood to track a person in the fade and so she knew where Connor was. She closed her eyes and jumped.

Five minutes later Neira faced down the desire demon responsible for her companions' trouble at Redcliff. The creature had used several images of Connor to mislead her temporarily, but you cannot hide from a dreamer in the fade and now Neira looked on the all-but naked demon, who was drawing Neira's attention to her breasts by running her hands over them. And Neira had to admit that they were very nice breasts.

**A/N this scene is NSFW in an F/F sort of way, if that makes you uncomfortable then I'll summarize everything at the end and you can just skip to that. I'll put in another note to let you know when the scene is over.**

"Perhaps we could come to an _arrangement_" the demon purred, running her hands along her body seductively. Neira knew that the demon was screwing with her but didn't want to shake her off; so long as the demon thought she had the upper hand Neira would be in a position to crush her easily.

"W-What sort of arrangement" Neira stuttered, largely captivated by the demon's body. After all it was a _desire _demon.

"I grant you a boon and then leave the boy for the time being, sometime later I return and take what is mine" the demon was doing the most _interesting _things with her breasts.

Neira spoke without hesitation, slightly forgetting that she was supposed to be affected the demon's influence "I want to learn how to use the desire of others to ensnare their minds"

"Do you wish me to simply place the knowledge in your mind or would you prefer that I… _show you_"

"I think you already know my answer" with that Neira stepped forward and kissed the demon on the mouth.

The demon responded by returning the kiss, wrapping her magic around Neira in such a way that she would be able to replicate it. "It is always wise to learn from Desire" the demon's voice was sultry, a pleasure in itself. Desire continued to kiss Neira and began to undo the mage's robes, letting them fall away. Neira responded by sliding the cloth that hid Desire's lower body off her hips, leaving the demon completely naked.

The demon broke off the kiss and began nibbling on Neira's neck, eliciting a gasp from the elf. She vanished her small clothes and the two sank to the floor, Desire on top.

Neira let out a small gasp as Desire slid her fingers into the woman's wet center, massaging her clit in an expert fashion. The feeling of pleasure was intensified as the demon lowered her mouth to one of the elf's breasts and began to suck on her nipple.

This continued as Neira came closer and closer to climax until the demon's fingers pushed her over the edge. She let out a scream of pleasure as the demon place her lips on the mage's once more. Neira push Desire onto her back and straddled her; the orgasm had completed the transfer of knowledge but that didn't mean she was done with the demon. Neira lowered the mouth to the demon's and kissed her, one of her hands going to the demon's breast where she conjured a knife to plunge into Desire's heart. "Desire may be your weapon, but it's also your weakness bitch." She hissed, drawing on her anger at what the demon had done to distract herself from what she was doing; even for a mage who completely divorced sex from love, this was brutal.

The demon laughed "But what a way to die" she whispered as the last of her life faded away.

**A/N Sex scene's done all you have to know is that Neira learns blood magic similar to the power used by the apostitute in DA2 (Elisa knows it too – should make for a fun lemon later) and then kills the demon. She probably wouldn't have acted that way if the demon hadn't been screwing with her and she'll probably have a breakdown about it later. But for now back to the real world and serious, plot relevant events.**

oOo

Alice had a messenger sent to Redcliff the second Neira woke up. Elisa had been playing with Loss beside the bed she had been laying on; no doubt praying that she wouldn't have to use it. She had smiled when Neira woke up, her face full of relief. "The demon?" she asked.

"Dead" Neira replied reaching for a glass of water beside the bed; Elisa handed it to her. "I… we'll discuss it later" Neira simply wasn't ready to talk about what she had done right now. How the demon had managed to increase her desire for pleasure just enough for her to come up with such an evil plan; even if the victim was demon what she had done was still beyond the pale. Elisa recognized this; perhaps she even guessed what had happened, she was after all an observer. "What's the plan?" she asked, changing the subject.

Elisa accepted the change without question "Arl Eamon's still sick and no magic that any of us know can save her, our only hope is the Urn of Sacred Ashes. The Arlessa told us to find a brother Genitivi in Denerim that has been looking into their location so half of us will go there. We also ran into a Levi Dryden that knows the location of Soldier's peak, an old Warden stronghold. Half of us will go there, hoping to find information on how to recreate the joining and the materials required. We'll take all of the recruits we've got to Soldier's peak and only wardens otherwise; if we find warden secrets I want to keep them as such – if we can perform the joining everyone who goes to Soldier's peak will leave as a warden, or not at all." The simplicity of the statement was almost reassuring; perhaps she would not judge Neira so harshly if she was willing to do the same "We'll wait for the others to join us here and then head out together until it's time to split up" she continued "we have five recruits; Clara, a mage that Alice found in the Redcliff dungeons named Jowan" Neira's eyes widened and Elisa smiled "Yes, Solona told me about your history, I know. Are you ok to work with him?" Neira nodded "Good, the other three recruits are Templars by the names of Henrick, Leroy and Jacob, they're probably under orders to keep an eye on the number of mages we've recruited but we need the recruits so if we'll keep them until they prove to be a problem, then we'll leave them in a ditch somewhere"

Neira adsorbed the information "We're staying here for now?" she asked

"Yes, the circle has some rooms set aside for guests and a rather distressing amount of empty rooms so we'll stay here and help make the tower safe until the others arrive in a few days."

"What happened to Wynne?"

"She passed out after the battle and hasn't woken up since; she was exhausted and will most likely sleep for a few days." Neira couldn't tell if Elisa wanted Wynne to wake up before they left or not; balancing the potential of a powerful ally against the risk of fighting Templars was a tricky thing.

Tired of life or death issues Neira flashed Elisa a seductive smile "So where are you staying?" she got up and slid her fingers under the gap between Elisa's upper and lower body armor, leaning in

"Here"

"Here?"

"This is the best guest room they have and since I'm the commander I get the best stuff"

"Who made you the commander?"

"I did" Elisa smiled at her "Sooo… You're in my bed"

"Do you have a problem with that?"

Elisa leaned in closer, a couple inches and they would be kissing "We'll discuss it after dinner" she whispered in Neira's ear and was out of the room before she realized what Elisa had said.

Neira ground her teeth; if Elisa did that one more time…

oOo

Elisa held Yusaris out in front of her, swinging the sword experimentally. She rarely used a greatswords, preferring the speed that smaller weapons and her Blood offered but for this thing she might make an exception. It was made of dragonbone and razor sharp, not to mention that it was far lighter than the average greatsword and heavily enchanted. Elisa sighed, as much as she loved the idea of adding the weapon to her personal armory she knew that Sten would be far more devastating with it; she would be able to do some damage with it but Sten would be able to swing it around like a feather.

They had managed to release Shah Wyrd without anyone realizing what they had done; better the release it on purpose and kill it when prepared for the battle then risk someone else releasing it by accident and getting caught unaware by the demon – such an encounter would most likely be fatal for all but the most formidable of fighters. The battle had proved to be useful for testing the skills of their three Templar recruits as well as their ability to fight alongside mages instead of against them; something they had all done well on, refraining from striking out when they would hit Solona or herself.

Provided they could think past their Templar indoctrination regarding blood magic they would be a great asset to the team. If not well… she'd make sure Kallian and Alice were behind them when she broached the subject.

oOo

"So, something occurred to me earlier, but we've been running around so I haven't been able to question you about it before" Solona looked shrewdly at Elisa as the two sat in the room that they had taken over and turned into a makeshift armory.

Unshaken, Elisa replied "What about?"

"When you pulled Silence and Loss out of Mouse's body they were covered in blood but when you pulled Blood out… it was clean"

"You've seen Blood covered in blood before; maybe it was a fluke" Elisa teased

Solona wasn't having any of it "Why would it happen after you used blood magic to fight the sloth demon?" she asked

Elisa just smiled

oOo

At dinner the group was given a place of honour in the mess hall, at the front of the massive room. The room was usually a noisy place, with hundreds of mages eating and talking but today there was a sober atmosphere as everyone was reminded how empty the normally packed place was. The tension was increased by the heightened vigilance of the Templars, treating every movement with scrutiny. The first time Elisa saw Henrick suspiciously watching Clara she informed him that if he could not treat his mage sisters with respect then they would have no need for them. Suitably chastised, Henrick made a visible effort to come to terms with the fact that the mages were equals and allies, not enemies; the other recruits did the same.

The food was good, prepared by the tranquil, who were thankful that things had begun to return to normal and were embracing their normal chores with as much enthusiasm as possible for them to have. Elisa would have thought that the tranquil were incapable of any feeling whatsoever but Neira had pointed out to her how much energy they were putting into their tasks; normally tranquil kept a slower pace, but today there moved noticeably faster. To Elisa it appeared as no different than a dinner that would be hosted by her parents but to the mages and Templars it appeared almost as if the tranquil were running.

Once dinner was finished the group drifted apart; Duran, Sten, Alice and Natia went off with the Templar recruits to spar, Clara headed off to the library to read a bit before going to bed – despite her being a maleficar she seemed to be most comfortable with her nose in a book – and Solona went off to see a mage that she had been involved with previously – obviously seeking to find respite from the stress of the last few day with physical pleasure. Neira and Elisa headed up to the rooms that had been set aside for the wardens

**A/N Femslash time! For anyone who wants to skip ahead do so – I'll mark it out again. Don't worry about any plot relevant parts, all you have to know is that they have hot lesbian sex.**

When the two reached Elisa's room Neira turned to the other woman "So you said that we could talk about me being in your bed after dinner" she smiled

"I did"

"And?"

"It was a sudden situation that you had no control over, so I won't hold it against you – this time"

Neira grinned flirtatiously "And what if it were to happen again?" she stepped closer to the human woman

Elisa put her hand on Neira's hip and pulled the elf against her; Neira could feel the heat through Elisa's clothes, for the first time since Neira had met her she had forgone her chainmail armor in favor of pants and a shirt. "If it happened again then we'd have to come to some sort of _arrangement_" she purred

"Perhaps we could negotiate then?"

"Lets" with that Elisa pressed her lips against Neira's, kissing her with considerable passion. Neira returned the kiss and slid her hands under Elisa's shirt and gasped in surprise; every woman she had been with before had been a mage, while many were magically dangerous few had any physical strength whatsoever and none had any scars. Elisa's body was so completely different than any she had touched before; she had small scars all over the front of her body, little nips and scratches that were just deep enough to leave marks on her body, and her back…

Elisa's back simultaneously excited and horrified Neira; it was a complete mass of scars, hundreds, if not thousands of small scars covered her back, clearly a sign of some form of torture. While Neira had been exploring her body, Elisa had opened the door to her room. Without breaking the kiss Elisa picked Neira up and carried her to the bed, closing the door behind her. Once they were there Neira tore off Elisa's shirt and broke the kiss to get a better look at the human's upper body.

Again Neira was reminded how different physically Elisa was from her previous lovers; while there was no doubting her femininity, Elisa had a certain physical prowess to her that defined her appearance. Her body was hard and muscled, not bulky but simply utterly lacking in any softness, toned to have only muscle and scars where most women would have softer flesh. She had a tattoo on her left shoulder, a strange design that resembled nothing Neira had never seen before. She ran her hands along the fighter's back "What happened here?" She asked.

"A case of voided luck" was Elisa's short reply "I'd rather not talk about it" She turned and kissed the mage, undoing her robe and letting it fall to the floor. As the two kissed Neira undid Elisa's breast band, letting it join her robes on the floor. Elisa quickly returned the favor and lowered her mouth to the other woman's nipple

Neira let out a gasp and allowed Elisa to direct her to the bed. There she found herself on her back as Elisa removed her loincloth and ran her tongue along the elf's slit. Neira was wracked with pleasure as she expertly went down on the elf; her pleasure building up until with one final lick, Elisa pushed her over the edge.

Her orgasm had her screaming in pleasure, made more extreme by the fact that Elisa had not taken her tongue off Neira's lower lips yet, lightly teasing her and prolonging the orgasm. When Neira's orgasm finally stopped she was disorientated, almost unconscious from the pleasure. She cast rejuvenation on herself to get a bit more energy and then sat up. Elisa was now sitting beside her, looking all too pleased with herself "Have fun?" she asked with a smile on her lips.

Neira kissed the human woman, enjoying the taste of herself on Elisa's lips "Almost too much" she murmured "my turn" she pushed Elisa over so she was flat on her back "and you're overdressed" she was looking at the pants Elisa still wore.

"Then do something about it"

"Gladly" With that Neira kissed Elisa and began unfastening her pants, not breaking the kiss at all. When the pants where off instead of sliding them off with her hands she simply used telekinetic force to remove them and her loincloth, baring her to the open air. Once that was done Neira called a small bit of lightning to her hand and ran it along Elisa's upper body.

"Ohhhhh" a moan broke free from Elisa's lips as the lightning tingled along her breast and upper body, just enough to feel good, precariously riding the edge between pleasure and pain. Neira finally broke the kiss and began nibbling her way down the other woman's body, paying special attention to many of the scars she had, all the while keeping the lightning going, intensifying the pleasure that Elisa was feeling. Once she got to the Elisa's mound she placed a gentle kiss on the fighter's clit before plunging her tongue into Elisa's center.

Keeping the lightning going and in control while making such a thorough job of going down on someone was a difficult skill, but Neira was not without practice and proved to be up the challenge. Elisa found herself brought over the edge quicker then she had in a long time and was all but unconscious when Neira finished with her.

When she recovered she looked over a Neira, "Maker" she breathed "where did you learn that?"

Neira smiled "Unlike you I've never had to hide my magic and I've had plenty of time to practice"

"Can you teach me?"

"It'll take some time"

"We've got all night" with that Elisa brought her lips to Neira's once more.

**A/N Lemon's done, only point of notice might be that Elisa has a tattoo on her left shoulder and a massive collection of small scars that cover her entire back. **

oOo

When Elisa left her room that morning she was greeted by her sister "Enjoy yourself?" Alice teased

"Immensely" she purred, unlike her sister, who had chosen to play the proper noble lady and stay chaste, Elisa had had a number of lovers over the years and was quite unabashed about her night time activities. Their parents had been frustrated by this as it had driven off many suitors, something that Alice suspected was deliberate; if it was ever discovered that Elisa was a mage any marriage she had would have been a huge scandal. "You should try it sometime instead of reading those books of yours"

Alice blushed; those books were the most scandalous thing she owned "Those are private" she snapped

"Indeed, maybe you should read them with Alistair, _in private_"

Alice's face got even redder "I have known Alistair for about a week; even if I was interested in him" Elisa smirked at her knowingly "that would be totally improper" Alice wondered why she never learned to not tease her sister, whenever she tried it she got more embarrassed then Elisa did; she swore the mage used blood magic to learn her every secret and used them with shameless precision.

"Well we do have a tent issue, so that would help…" At this point Alice's face was pure red, she knew her sister was just bugging her but still…

"Enough" Alice held up her hand "This conversation is over, I was going to ask if you wanted to help improve the Templars' battle skills after breakfast but I think I'll do it myself"

"By all means, vent your sexual frustration with the use of long, hard toys"

Alice loved her sister, but that didn't stop her from testing Elisa's ability to dodge flying objects.

oOo

The next two days followed a regular pattern. In the morning the wardens helped clean to tower, ensuring it was safe once more and in the afternoon Sten, Duran, Natia and Alice helped train the Templars while Solona, Neira and Clara worked with the mages while Elisa bounced between them both, helping train her wardens where they were lacking, teaching the mages new and more powerful spells, showing the fighters more effective techniques and showing everyone how to improve their mental defenses. The other group had finalized the issues at Redcliff and would be at the tower in about two days' time.

On the third morning Wynne woke up.

oOo

"I must admit I find myself facing a dilemma that I never thought I would face" Wynne faced Elisa, Neira and Clara as the four sat in one of the more isolated tower room, warded for silence. The three blood mages had agreed to speak with Wynne as soon as possible in order to head the situation off. "My entire life I have always been instructed about the dangers and evil of blood magic and have always assumed that if I ever met any maleficar that I would have no doubts about killing them or turning them over to the Templars" she continued "But now we are in the middle of a blight and the two most powerful wardens, Ferelden's best hope of surviving the blight wield blood magic. Without you two" she indicated Elisa and Neira "I am not sure that we can stop this. Furthermore, there is no doubt in my mind that you are responsible for saving the circle, if you had not been here we all would have perished"

The three looked at each other "So what are you going to do?" Elisa asked

"I will admit I am torn; I cannot in good conscience let three maleficar wander about free but neither can I so readily betray the people who saved the lives of so many. I think the best choice for now is for me to aid you on your journeys and see what your choices are"

Clara frowned "So mistrusting Wynne? Abandoning the circle when they need you so to follow us around the country and keep an eye on us?"

"What would you have me do? Simply trust one of the blood mages who nearly destroyed the circle to act in anything other than their own interests?"

"Perhaps if you were not so blind to anything that the chantry so much as looked at wrong then you would realize that blood magic is a tool and –"

"Enough!" Elisa snapped, worried that the raised voices would allow someone to eavesdrop on their conversation "Clara, make no mistake _you are suspect_. You aided in an armed rebellion against the biggest organization of Thedas. What would have happened if you had won? Would you have demanded tithes from the surrounding lands to support yourselves? Troops to combat the inevitable exalted march? Perhaps you would have decided that the country was better off under mage leadership? Do you have any idea how close you were to starting another Tevinter imperium here in Ferelden?"

"I-"

"Save it, you're not dead because you're powerful, because I think you earnestly seek to undo the damage you have done and because I believe I can control you. The second any of the changes you're another corpse on the road" Elisa rounded on Wynne "Wynne, I appreciate your caution, I spent some time in Tevinter a few years ago and still have the scars from the rebellion I helped out in there; never say that I don't appreciate the dangers of absolute power, be it in the hands of mages or mundanes." Neira shuddered, thinking of the scars she sees on Elisa's back every night "That being said, I will not allow your suspicion to hinder our cause; you can come if you promise that you will not act unless you bring the issue to me or whoever is in charge, understood?" Wynne nodded "Furthermore, I will not pander to your paranoia; if the group is divided I will send you off with whomever you are most beneficial to, you may well find yourself on the other side of Ferelden from one, two or even all of three of us and you will be expected to deal with it or leave. If you act without my express permission I will kill you, if compromise the mission I will kill you, if you start a confrontation without my go ahead I will kill you, do you see a pattern here?" Wynne nodded again "Good, grey wardens do what they must so I can't expect you to like everything we do, hell I can't expect me to like everything I do but I can expect you to follow orders, if it's too much you are free to leave at any time or speak to me at camp but that is the only discontent you are allowed, Clear?" Wynne considered what had been said and nodded "Good, I think you'll be a great asset to the team, do you still want to come?"

"Yes, but I have to ask; what will you do about your Templar recruits?"

Elisa smiled grimly "They'll get the same offer you did minus the chance to walk away"

oOo

Jowan poked at the fire and tried not to pay attention to the witch and the elf that were flirting on the other side of the fire. I had been possible to ignore them when they were traveling in a group but with just the three of them he found himself thinking longingly of Lily.

While the others of the group had headed to the tower it was decided that the intelligence of bringing an apostate mage was questionable at best and bringing a known maleficar was downright stupid. Theron had decided that he would rather not see how Shemlen mages lived and so had come along as well. The three were camped out near the tower where the group could pick them up when they left tomorrow and avoid confrontation with their Templar allies. In the meantime Jowan was stuck being painfully reminded how he had lost his own love; she had hated him when he left the tower and was now suffering because of him. He wished he had never thought of blood magic in the first place!

But it was too late now; all he could do was make the best of what he had and redeem himself with the wardens. Jowan poked at the fire, lost in the misery of his thoughts.

Unseen, an elf hid watched the camp from the shadows. He had heard them speak of a rendezvous with the others tomorrow, all the grey wardens together and could be taken out with a single ambush. He had enough men, he could do it.

The elf smiled, this job would be quick and easy, then he could go home and collect the lucrative reward.

**A/N I wonder who that is…**

**Voided luck = Devil's luck**

**Sorry this chapter took so long, it was just really slow going for me. Also I've been spending more time on my homework, so that cuts down on the amount of time I have to write.**

**On another note I'm kinda curious about how the NSFW scenes went, especially the first one (I refuse to call it a lemon – a lemon is a nice, pleasant sex scene, that was a fucked up thing that kinda unnerved me when I realized what I had written). The second one was kinda whatever – for fun, I kinda want to know if it was good or bad but don't really care – but the first I'm curious to see what people thought, was it good? Did it seem way out there? Did it unnerve you at the end? Was it fucked beyond belief and I'm going to hell for writing it? Don't tell me if you thought it was the last one, I like to believe I have a shot at a good afterlife.**

**Also feel free to check out my one shot Tainted Mercy, it's set a few years before Tainted Blood and hints on what Elisa's capable of and what she's done. It's may not be a one shot for very long either – it really wants to become a real story (and may be fun to write to, I could write it as a romance except that everyone knows how horribly it ends – see how that turns out. And it would be a good way to show how Elisa started coming into her own, hmmm…)**

**And just like that another story pops into my head and starts clamoring to get out. Also I would like to comment on the fact that Elisa's lover in Tainted Mercy is male, just so no one gets confused. It was deliberate – mainly because I couldn't imagine a girl in that situation, or didn't want to – and I figure the explanation is pretty obvious.**

**Anyways as always, thanks for reading and please review**


	16. Chapter 13

As they approached the camp where Morrigan, Theron and Jowan were waiting Elisa gave a nod and everyone save the Templars silently drew there weapons; it was almost certain that they would recognize Jowan and would need to be dealt with if they could not accept that the wardens allowed the use of blood magic. She had spoken with the other members of the group and all had agreed, if Alistair and Wynne had been particularly reluctant to participate; they stood at the back of the group and while they had drawn their weapons it was doubtful that they would willingly participate if it came to combat. Elisa knew this and did not care; she had established that they would not fight with the Templars and the issue could be easily handled without their help.

And sure enough when the Templars saw Jowan they immediately went to draw their swords, only to stop when they felt the blades of the group members pressed firmly against their skin. Jacob was the first the grasp the situation "He's an apostate!" he snapped "he will turn on you the moment he's given the chance!"

"Perhaps, but the he seems willing to atone and the wardens welcome anyone who will fight the darkspawn. Frankly I'd look more closely at _you three _considering that your first act as warden recruits was to draw on a fellow recruit" Elisa snarled

All three Templars were taken aback by the statement and Elisa pressed on "Let's make this very clear; wardens do whatever is necessary to end the blight. As far as I'm concerned the fact that he's a maleficar just means that he can kill the darkspawn quicker; we are not judges, anyone who wishes to aid us is welcome. If you have a problem with that, then you are more trouble than you're worth _are we clear_?"

Before the Templars could reply a fireball flew out of the trees toward the center of the group. Solona quickly countered it with an ice spell, dissipating the magic before it could do any damage. Immediately following that a large group of men dashed out from the forest and began to attack while a group of archers began to fire arrows down from the trees.

"Archers! Mages! I want those archers dead! Jacob, go kill yourself a mage! The rest of you, protect the mages and kill these assassins!" Elisa roared

The battle was fast and brutal; clearly their attackers had been counting on them being wounded by the fireball but even still, they were deadly fighters. The archers were a great danger and Solona found herself working overtime on shields, keeping the others safe from the raining arrows. Thankfully, while deadly, the attackers lacked the constitution for pitched battle and were felled, one and all. The most dangerous member of the group, and apparent leader, was an elf that had immediately attacked Elisa and had actually managed to block several of her attacks before she knocked him out cold with a strike against his temple with Silence's hilt. Once the assassins were dead Elisa gave out another set of orders "Tie the elf up!" She roared "kill any other wounded! I'm going to make sure Jacob dealt with the mage!" and took off into the forest.

oOo

As soon as the mage had realized that there were Templars in the group she had turned and ran, fleeing a fight she knew she could not win. Unfortunately for her, all Templars were trained to chase after feeling mages in full plate and Jacob had no problems chasing her down. When he got close enough he unleashed a holy smite that brought the mage to her knees. Ignoring her pleas for mercy and offers of valuable information Jacob struck her down without hesitation "No apostate deserves to live" he snarled, grinning savagely at having killed yet another one of the abominations; if he had his way all mages would serve the Chantry without hesitation or be made tranquil.

Elisa walked through the forest behind him "Just making sure that you handled the mage" she said.

He grinned "No problems" he replied.

He did not see the dagger she was holding, or did not think that it was for him. He did not suspect that she knew of his plan to alert the Templars of Jowan's location at the first chance he got and so did not suspect that she would have reason to harm her. He continued to believe that until she slid the dagger under his armor and between his ribs. "Blood mages can read minds you know" she whispered in his ear as she held his body against the dagger before slipping it out and walking away, heading back towards where the others were.

oOo

To the casual onlooker the group was simply lounging about; Kallian and Solona were sitting near the unconscious elf while the rest of them were spread out around the camp, talking amongst one another. But Elisa saw that their chatter was quiet and distracted and they were looking everywhere but the person they were talking to; they were on the lookout for more attackers.

"Jacob's dead, the mage was carrying a blade and he let her get too close. We'll go get the body after we deal with the assassin" she said

"Why are you so certain he's an assassin?" Henrick frowned

"Superior armor and weapons, well timed ambush, superior training, mage assistance, shall I go on?"

Henrick looked suitably chastised and Elisa nodded to Neira, "Wake him up"

The mage held her hand over the assassin's head while Alice held a blade to his throat, healing his injuries enough to return him to consciousness while simultaneously wrapping him in curses that would impede his movement even if he managed to untie the ropes binding him without them noticing. Elisa glanced at the others "Go guard the perimeter" she ordered "I don't want any surprises"

Most of the group spread out to the edge of the camp and Elisa, Neira, Alice and Kallian were left alone with the assassin as he came to "Ugh" he grunted "I admit I am surprised to wake up. I had assumed that I would wake up dead" the elf's smile was one of dark humor "or not wake up at all as the case may be"

The elf's demeanor despite the obvious threat confirmed his occupation; one of Elisa's teachers had once told her that "No matter who they if you hold a blade to someone's throat they'll usually do what you want. The exception to the rule is trained killers and psychopaths; sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the two." Given the situation it was safe to assume the elf was one of the former. Elisa visibly nodded to Kallian, who drew a pair of daggers and smiled.

"Going to torture me for information?" even for an assassin, this elf was extremely blasé about his situation "My name is Zevran Araiani, Zev to my friends, I am a member of the Antivan crows who was hired by Loghain Mac Tir to assassinate the last grey wardens, which – sadly – I have failed at"

"I'm rather happy you failed" Neira quipped

"Yes, I imagine you would be. Unfortunately to me, it sets rather poor precedent. Getting captured by one's targets tends to stifle one's budding assassin's career"

Elisa sighed "This doesn't really help us" she nodded to her sister "Kill him"

"Wait!" Zevran cried out "I have a proposition for you"

"What? Crows don't meet their employers after a hit so you can't get us to Loghain so don't think you can pull a fast one"

"Not that"

"Then what? Speak quickly"

"Well here's the thing: I failed to kill you yes? Good for you, but the Crows don't look too kindly on failure; even if I went back they'd kill me for failing. And frankly I wasn't given a choice about joining in the first place. However the only way to leave without dying is to sign up with someone that even the crows would hesitate to take on. And you are clearly the sort to give them pause. So I propose this; allow me to swear an oath of loyalty to you and aid you on your quest"

Elisa snorted "You must think I'm royally stupid"

"The crows are a strict lot; even if I killed you later they might just kill me on principle for failing the first time, besides, what are the chances that I could kill you all and escape with my life? And that's what I'd have to do if I wanted the crows to take me back"

Elisa was in the process of drawing Loss when a memory came to her unbidden; a memory of a mercy she had not deserved and the redemption it had preceded. She had come up against the crows before and knew of their hiring practices; it was doubtful that the elf had lied when he said he had been given no choice on joining the Crows. She knew that the elf almost certainly deserved mercy far more then she had – why not offer it and gain an ally?

She closed her eyes briefly and then brought the blade down.

The sword had cut through the ropes binding his arms, partially freeing him. "Hold out your arm" she instructed, sheathing Loss and pulling a dagger from her belt and a runed vial from her pack. He complied and she sliced his arm open, filling the vial with his blood. "Just in case you get any funny ideas" she explained before freeing his legs

"Care to explain how?" Zevran asked and Elisa just smiled "I can't cheat if I don't know the rules. Clever" he chuckled before kneeling before her "I, Zevran Araiani, swear my life to your cause until such a time that the task is complete, you release me from my oath, or I am dead." He stood "If that's all cleared up then let's move on, I'm sure that we have important business to attend to"

**A/N Another small chapter, mainly b/c this was a good break point and I'm pretty sure this is the longest I've gone without updating and I wanted to get something out.**

**Yes, one of Elisa's teachers was the DA incarnation of Zaeed – if he ever shows up in the story I'm actually give him that name (For those of you that haven't played Mass Effect, Zaeed is a DLC companion in ME2, a very mercenary character – an old grizzled veteran of a merc) I always loved that quote from him and it suits Zevran so I figured I'd add it in.**

**On another note I am now convinced that Tainted Mercy is going to grow arms and write itself – it just keeps popping up. I know that if I knew how to start the second chapter it'd be up by now.**

**Anyways, thanks for reading and please review**


	17. Chapter 14

**A/N I while back I went and added in a small note about Elisa taking a "Small, black book" from Irving's office in chapter 8. I then forgot about it and never mentioned it in my author notes until this chapter, where it becomes relevant.**

It was surprisingly easy to get the group to accept Zevran. Duran, Theron and Natia shared Elisa's "If you can control them, use them" mentality, Leliana seemed to think that all he was seeking redemption and so welcomed him with open arms, Alistair and the other two Templars disagreed but were more than willing to accept it regardless – the chantry seemed to instill a "Shut up and do what you're told" mentality on their Templars, something that made them easy to deal with provided they weren't asked to defy previous chantry indoctrination – and Jowan and Clara realised that they had absolutely no moral high ground to stand on. Morrigan was harder to convince, something that wasn't helped by Zev's agreeing with her that they should all watch their food closely. However she quieted after Elisa showed her the phylactery filled with Zevran's blood. Once they organized the group and dealt with Jacob's body and headed out to the rendezvous they set with Levi, where they would divide the group again; half going to soldier's peak and half going to Denerim to find info Brother Genitivi and the Urn of Sacred Ashes.

oOo

Elisa swore viciously, slamming her fist into the dirt she was sitting on. They were settled down for the night and Elisa had taken some time to attempt to decipher the grimoire she had taken from Irving's office. Elisa was absolutely certain that the tome held powerful magical secrets; not only had it been stored in the First Enchanter's office where it was both secure and easily accessible, it also had a distinct and powerful magical aura about it despite the fact that it held no magic of its own - something that clearly indicated that it had been owned, most likely even written, by a powerful mage. Unfortunately it was encrypted both magically and normally, making it only possible to read by someone with the blood of the intended owner.

"Frustrated?" Morrigan sat down beside the woman "I am surprised to see you so challenged by anything that the circle of magi has to offer. Perhaps if you spent less time swinging your swords about you would be able to..." Morrigan trailed off as she studied the grimoire more closely "It that mother's book?" she demanded "Where did you get that?"

"Your mother's?" Elisa asked, excited; if Morrigan's mother had enchanted this book then perhaps they could use could use her blood to trick the enchantments into allowing her to read it or even break them so Elisa could read the book herself.

"Yes, I'm certain of it" Morrigan took the book from Elisa and looked it over "before I born a young Templar joined an expedition to hunt her down. Naturally they were slaughtered but for some reason that one Templar knew that they had no hope against her as soon as he saw her and ran. He didn't want to die but was afraid to return to his superiors unscratched and empty handed, so he snuck into her hut and stole the grimoire while she killed his comrades." She held the book up, grinning "this represents the one time that my mother let her secrets get away from her and now offers me an opportunity to learn more than my mother wanted me to, I would not let it go to waste"

Elisa grinned "Then let's get to work shall we?"

oOo

They were not able to break the enchantments of the book the first night, or even the second but they eventually managed to break through the enchantments enough for Morrigan to get to work on the regular encryption. After that Elisa mainly left the book to Morrigan; she tried spells from time to time but the enchantments were powerful and they couldn't break through them anymore than they already had, even with Neira's help. Elisa trusted Morrigan to reveal most of what she found; she knew that the witch wasn't stupid enough to try and give her completely false information and hoped that she would be able to spot it if Morrigan was disturbed or interested enough to attempt to hide something from her. As Elisa was often doing something else as the informal leader of the group that was all she was able to do.

Three days before they reached the rendezvous point the group was settling down for the night when Jowan wandered off. Elisa frowned, since this was unlike him and followed him. She found him looking at a concealed fortress that had been hidden by the mountains that covered this part of Ferelden. The fortress was a tough, evil thing. Made from the strongest granite, the fortress looked as if it could hold off an army with ten men, but it was an evil thing as well; the veil was all but torn and the blood soaked aura of the place.

Aeonar

Elisa had always heard stories of the fabled mage's prison, but never imagined that it would be this bad. The very stone of the place wailed in her ears, telling her the history, name and evil of this place - not unlike the song of her own blades, but so much more malignant then them - even if she had never heard of the place she would've known the place the second she laid eyes upon the place. "Not exactly the safest place for a maleficar" she drawled, revealing herself to Jowan.

He jumped "Oh, sorry" he never took his eyes off the place.

Elisa paused, she had gotten one of the Templers to tell her about Jowan's escape and how his beloved had been sent here. She closed her eyes, remembering similar experiences of her own with sorrow and knew what Jowan faced was worse - Larius had not gone to the torture chambers hating her and in the end she had gotten a chance to say goodbye, as dark as there reunion was. "You made a mistake" her voice was soft, full of sympathy "You should never have reached for blood magic, you were strong enough without it. But you do not deserve this, you do not deserve to look at this horrible prison and know the woman you love is inside it because you made a mistake."

"What can I do?" He demanded "How can I make this right? How can I undo the fact that my Lily is in that prison because I was afraid that I wasn't powerful enough to survive my Harrowing?"

"Nothing, Not yet. Not today, not tomorrow, maybe never. I cannot promise you that you will make this right. But if you stay with us then I can promise you that one day, you will find your redemption, you will be able to look back and know that you have done more good than harm. I doubt that you will find comfort in that fact but it is all you will ever have. Your happiness escaped with the first drop of blood that fell from your bleeding palm, all that's left for you is redemption or pleasure. Decide what you want and then come back to camp."

Elisa folded into the night as quietly as she had come, leaving Jowan to ponder what she had said, and to make his decision.

oOo

Neira pressed one finger to her temple and frowned; the veil was weak somewhere nearby. It didn't bother her - Elisa's training was doing its job - but she was still aware of it and if the veil was weak then something would have most likely slipped through, and theirs was almost certainly the nearest group nearby. She walked over to where Alice was sitting with Alistair, Duran and Natia and sat down beside them "The Veil's very weak nearby, we need to be on our guard"

Alice nodded and called the others in "Neira senses a weakness in the Veil nearby, Solona and Zevran, Leroy and Kallian, and Morrigan and Theron, I want you on guard yesterday, we won't get as much sleep tonight but it's better safe than sorry. Neira, coming with me to find Jowan and Elisa; It's likely my sister already knows but better safe than sorry. Now, does anyone know what could have caused this weakness?"

"Aeonar" Elisa stepped out of the shadows, stepping into the circle the others had made as if she had been there all along "The mage prison is only three miles north of here. Jowan's not far from there deciding that he wants to live instead of dying for what he cannot undo, he'll be back soon"

"And if he isn't?" This was from Leroy, who was frowning at the thought of giving a blood mage such a clear chance to escape

"Then he's dead, or soon will be. We're three days away from the nearest farmstead, cutting through mountains where the snow never melts in order to make good time. If he doesn't come back then it's because something killed him"

Leroy nodded "fair enough"

"Excellent, now if that's settled then I'm sure everyone has things to do yes? Let's get to it"

oOo

Nearly two hours later Jowan finally stepped into camp to find Elisa waiting for him "have a good think?" she asked

"Yes, I…" his voice trailed off as he gathered his thoughts, Elisa didn't press him. Once he was ready he spoke again "I've thought about what you said and you're right. I can't do anything about what happened to Lily and I can't undo the damage I've caused. But I can help people, try to redeem myself after what I've done, try to make things better. That I can do."

Elisa grinned "Good man"

Three days later they reached Levi and Alice headed to Denerim with Alistair, Zevran, Natia, Wynne, Leliana, Sten, Solona and Morrigan while Elisa took Neira, Theron, Duran and the recruits with Levi to Soldier's peak. They would clear the fortress and see if they could discover how to perform the Joining. If at all possible the recruits would leave the fortress grey wardens in truth… or not at all.

**A/N So first off, two apologies: Sorry for not posting in a while, Christmas and the resulting new books and video games - through the new video games were mainly the fault of the Steam Sale - I swear that I haven't abandoned you guys, I promise! . And sorry if the second part of this chapter seems a bit rushed, I'm leaving for Cuba tomorrow and wanted to get a chapter off before I left.**

**On the Cuba note I'm bringing my computer but I don't know how much time I'll spend on it. So I may post several chapters in rapid succession starting on the 8th or I may not post anything else for two weeks or so. Hopefully it won't be the latter but I make no promises.**

**Thanks to Latindragon for his review**

**Anyways thanks for reading and please review! **


	18. Chapter 15

**A/N I haven't played DAO in a while so some of the stuff may be slightly of canon.**

Elisa stepped out of the last of the tunnels behind Levi. Before them stood Soldier's Peak, the lost Warden fortress, home to a story of loss and betrayals. Whose, Elisa didn't know, but the way the stories were told someone had been betrayed, someone had gambled everything and lost. And the wardens had been kicked out of Ferelden for centuries.

"This is it" Levi gazed up at the place, recognizing it for the place of legend that it was for him "Soldier's Peak, the warden base in Ferelden until they were thrown out for conspiring to overthrow the king"

Elisa nodded "Anything we should know before heading up?" They began walking towards the fortress, the rest of the group following behind them.

"The fortress has been empty for centuries so there may be some wildlife in there, other than that there's rumors that the fortress is haunted but I'm sure that's a load of -" he was cut off as a rush of ghostly images sprang up. Soldiers, wearing the crest of the Ferelden military moved quickly. "They've fallen back to the fortress, walled themselves up inside." a scout reported

"Then we'll starve them out" A soldier wearing the markings of a general declared

"But sir, that will take months"

"Then we set up for a long siege, They had their chance to fight honourable but they chose to hide like cowards, if they fight like cowards then they'll die like cowards, starving like rats in a trap"

The scene faded from view and Levi let out a shaky laugh "Maker, what was that?"

"Fade's paper thin here" was Elisa's reply "Something - " she was cut off when skeleton's rose out of the snow to attack them.

So close to the fade, with bodies that had been exposed to magic for so long made the skeletons powerful and being powerful made them _fast_.

Levi screamed as the possessed corpses lunged toward him and jumped behind Elisa as she whipped Blood off her back and moved to engage them.

As the first came towards her, swinging a sword she readied a powerful spell, gathering her strength as she felt Neira doing the same, Henrick, Leroy and Duran stepped forward, shields up to block the undead's attack. Clara and Jowan launched spells at their attackers as Theron did the same with his arrows.

The first wave of skeletons hit them and they were almost knocked back by the sheer speed and skill of their attackers. Duran and Elisa held their own but were faced with the numbers of their enemies and the weakness of their allies; Leroy and Henrick were formidable fighters but they were not the warriors that the two wardens were used to fighting alongside. Theron and the mages provided better support but Neira was unable to cast any spells save the one she was readying, as was Elisa.

Elisa fell back slightly slower than the others; using Blood or her two swords favored having a more open area to fight from. She swung Blood in front of her in what appeared to be a straight line but was in actuality more a wave; weaving around the weapons and armor of the skeletons Blood's blade were striking and cleaving through their spines uninterrupted, killing them all.

As Elisa took point Duran and the two templars fell back, him on one side, them on the other. He used his shield to hold off several skeletons as he used his sword to kill one at a time.

The two templars had been trained together and knew each other's minds quite well. They fought side by side, holding off the skeletons with the help of Clara and Jowan while Theron kept any skeletons who got by them or the other two from attacking the mages. Both grated at the idea of fighting alongside blood mages but to stop the darkspawn they could do it, so long as they were not asked to participate in the foul practice.

The Wardens fought valiantly but the skeletons were too much, more and more poured into the courtyard and attacked the group. Eventually Henrick let one of the skeletons through his guard and the creature's blade slid in between his armour plates and sliced up his knee.

He crumpled

Leroy raised his shield and pushed the undead back, preventing them from finishing Henrick off but even more skeletons poured into the courtyard; the wardens were now outnumbered ten to one. Elisa would be able to escape alive, and possibly one or two of the others but that was it, Levi would die, Henrick would die, Leroy, Clara and Jowan would die. And the expedition would fail, Soldier's peak would remain lost.

Neira and Elisa unleashed their magic.

The raw force of the combined spells was like nothing any of the others had ever seen, the sheer power of the magic swept over everyone's skin, chilling them to the core. A massive, localized storm hit the horde of skeletons, killing them all. Those who were outside of the storms reach were sucked in by some sort of vortex that only affected the skeletons and destroyed, just like their kindred. Everyone was awestruck by the power that the two warden mages had shown but Jowan and the templars, who had never seen a real demonstration of power from them, were most affected _we're supposed to equal that?_ the three thought, in shock that the wardens had thought that they could be considered equal to that sort of power. Duran and Theron were barely in shock at all, having seen what Neira and Elisa had done during the battle of Ostagar. Clara was somewhat in shock but less in awe having survived a focused blast of both Neira and Elisa's power at Kinloch Hold. Levi watched both the combat and the ensuing display of power with open-mouthed astonishment.

Every single skeleton in the courtyard had been destroyed.

Elisa turned around and called out "Everyone ok?"

"Henrick got a nasty wound in his knee" Leroy called out

Elisa looked at Neira, who was already hurrying over to heal Henrick "It's pretty bad" she said "the blade sliced several tendons and screwed up the joint itself, almost as bad as an arrow right under the kneecap. Without magic you'd have trouble walking for the rest of your life, with magic you'll take several weeks to heal. Stay with Levi for the rest of the expedition, I don't want you dying because you your knee gave out during a fight" Henrick frowned but accepted her diagnosis and lay still while she began healing his wound.

Once Henrick's knee had been treated the group gathered themselves and entered the Keep to find what had torn the veil so badly and what warden secrets still lay within this dark and haunted castle.

oOo

"You've got to be kidding me" Elisa snarled as she entered the room and saw what was waiting for them behind the desk of the warden commander.

They had encountered demons and abominations throughout the castle; through thankfully not in the numbers that they had encountered in the courtyard, including one particularly powerful demon who had drawn power from the corpses of several warden mages and dropped a powerful staff that had the name "Winter's Breath" on the shaft. The staff was extremely power and had been given to Clara, who had took to the powerful weapon like a fish to water. That had been in the room that they had just left. Apart from the way they had come in there had been two ways out of that room and one had been block by a barrier. Before wasting power breaking the barrier Elisa had decided that they would investigate this room and see if they could find anything of value or the source of the barrier's power, removing the need to waste energy breaking the thing. Elisa didn't know about the former but she was looking at the latter from across the long room, sitting in Sophia Dryden's body.

Hence the comment.

"Hold" the demon possessing Dryden's Corpse said "I do not wish to fight"

"Well I do" Elisa sapped, patience wearing thin. She was tired, and hungry and some of the demons here had been formidable enough to hurt her "I am fed up with demons and their unrelenting quest to stick their heads in our world. Everywhere I go these days it seems like more of you idiots are there, making what should have been a simple trip into a nightmare focused on killing you assholes, so if don't want to fight you better have a damn good reason, so speak quickly demon, or taste my blade" She held up Blood to reinforce her point.

"I can repair the tear in the veil" the possessed corpse spat out "I am trapped here by the magic of the one in the tower, kill him and I'll repair the veil and be on my way. This body has memories of the world outside and would like to see such things. This one will leave peacefully and without a fight if you kill the one in the tower for me"

Elisa ground her teeth; she would very much like to kill the demon in front of her as it would simplify things considerably. But neither she nor Neira knew how to close a tear in the veil and she didn't fancy learning how to do so on the fly. One thing bothered her however… "Why did you erect a barrier to keep people out of the tower if that's where your enemy is?" she asked

"Keeping people out was not this one's attention. This one seeks to keep the one in the tower trapped here as well. It would be most unfortunate if he escaped and brought help"

Elisa nodded "Fair enough" she turned to the rest of the group "Me and Neira are going to go see what is in the tower, everyone else is going to stay here and keep an eye on the squatter in Sophia Dryden's body, if it does anything cute, kill it and we'll figure something else out along the way, any questions?" There were none "Very well, Let's move"

oOo

She and Neira headed into the other room and then to the tower. they crossed a bridge outside where several skeletons were trying to break into the tower, the two had no difficulty dispatching them.

Inside the tower the two found an antechamber filled with books and research notes. Not wanting to rely solely on the word of a demon to assure them that this was the right course of action they looked about. What they found was quite disturbing. The sole remaining resident of this tower had apparently been conducting experiments on his fellow wardens, trying to improve their speed and strength. In most cases the experiments were fatal, killing the comrades that had apparently survived the siege to take refuge in here with him in agonizing fashions. However it appeared that he had succeeded in his goals and two potions sat on a table, potions that the notes claimed would increase their abilities. Elisa looked over at Neira and grinned "Feeling lucky?"

Neira studied the potions briefly before grinning "Always" she replied and downed to potion. She was immediately wracked with pain as the potion coursed through her body, changing her body, her power, her blood, making her a more effective weapon against the darkspawn, against anyone, really. When the changes were done she straightened up and grinned at Elisa "Good as new, better even"

Elisa picked up the potion and studied it "Bottoms up" she downed the potion.

when the changes were done the two turned and entered the tower's lab, where they would find the one that Sophia Dryden had sent them to kill.

**A/N I'm back, in my nice, cold home that is very much not Cuba *sob*I actually pretty depressed right now. On the bright side I have internet, a week's worth of fanfiction to read, a bandwidth that allows me to download a number of the games I bought in the steam sale and you, my beloved readers. Maybe not so depressed after all I guess but still, I'd rather be in Cuba.**

**Anyways, this is the extent of the writing I got done on vacation so that's that, sorry. I probably would have done more except I had trouble finding an outlet to plug my laptop into - if anyone goes to Cuba bring some adaptors so you can plug your stuff in, they use a lot of European plugs (some North American ones tho, found one in my aunts room on Saturday, which was how I managed to get any writing done at all) - and couldn't use it for most of the trip.**

**Thanks to Latindragon for his review**

**As always thanks for reading and please review!**


	19. Chapter 16

**A/N Anyone else thought that it was too easy to get into Denerim?**

Just before they left Elisa pulled Alice aside and handed her several documents and a bag of blood runes. "These documents contain all the information that I could find on grey warden caches in Denerim. Most of them are tiny and contain only a few pieces of gear but there's a safe house by the Denerim marketplace that could serve as a base of operations while you're in the city. I get the impression that most major cities have a number of these things but the wardens have only been in Ferelden for about two decades so they haven't had the time to make more than one. The thing contains the only supply of Archdemon blood we can get unless we manage to find some in Soldier's Peak so we need it if we're going to make more wardens."

Alice held up the bag of blood runes "And these?"

"Specialty blood runes, very powerful and the only reason they're not illegal is because no one knows they exist. Wade can use them and is absolutely in love with what they can do; If you give them to him he'll be more than happy to outfit you guys with whatever you need, you won't even have to deal with Harren complaining because they're worth a fortune"

"Anything else?"

"Nothing, this is your command now sister"

oOo

They were halfway to Denerim, traveling through a forest path to cut some time off their trip when Alice held up hand, calling the company to stop. She peered into the forest; she'd seen something odd, an aura about an item - a weapon really - that meant it had been enchanted. She couldn't see it now, however which meant someone still had it. This meant one of two things, either someone else was taking this path through the forest or they were about to walk into an ambush. Gesturing to Morrigan, Alice pointed to the sky, without a word the shapeshifter took the form of a crow and flew into the trees. Silently the company readied their weapons, preparing for battle.

Having flown in a full circle Morrigan passed in front of Alice and pecked the warden's sword, they had company.

Still in crow form, Morrigan made a full circle again, this time cawing each time she went by a would be ambusher. When she passed by the apparent leader of the group she cawed twice, marking the man out for the others. Alice signalled the others; kill everyone but the leader, they would need to know who sent them.

They didn't stand a chance.

The speed and skill of wardens combined with their magic foreknowledge of where the attackers were meant that the ambushers were taken out before they even realized that the company were in the area.

The leader had been knocked out but was still alive. Kallian stripped him of his armour and weapons before tying him up, ensuring that he did not have any surprises on him that might allow him to escape. When he came to he groaned "Maker, what happened?"

"You screwed up" Kallian whispered in his ear, running her blade along his chest in a delicate, almost gentle touch. "You thought that you could get the jump on grey wardens and paid the price. The only reason you're still alive is because we want to know who sent you."

"Wardens? That bitch, look I wasn't told that you were grey wardens, only that you were traveling this way. We were supposed to capture the red-haired girl and kill everyone else, we didn't know you were grey wardens, please just let me live."

"Red-haired girl? Me?" Leliana's voice was one of shock and surprise.

"Tell us who hired you, and we'll let you live" Kallian's voice was a deadly, lethal purr, full of violence and anticipation; either she had a very good bluff or she wanted to torture the man.

"L-look, I don't know the name, she didn't tell and I didn't ask but I was given the address for a house in Denerim where we were supposed to deliver the girl, just please let me go" Kallian looked over to Alice who nodded, the man gave them the address and took off into the woods.

oOo

Command is a funny thing. Technically you're in charge and in battle you are, but in the lull, when soldiers have time to think for themselves that's not always true. Every soldier has morals, things they will never agree with. Sometimes they will stand by and allow others to do these things or even do them themselves if they are loyal enough to their commanders. But every time there faced with that choice between morality and discipline something weakens in them, comes closer to breaking and if that something breaks there's no telling what they'll do. So a good commander avoids this by either making choices their men will agree with or by making these choices where their men can't see them.

The running mercenary is a prime example of this. He is after all a threat. He knows that he faced some of that last living wardens in Ferelden and he knows where they were. He knows who's with this group and who's not. And best of all he thinks he has a good idea of where they're going next. All of this is valuable information, information that Loghain's intelligence network would value highly. That this man is terrified of his employer, the one he just sold out, doesn't help the wardens chances of discretion. This man wants to be out of the country at the very least by the time that the wardens reach Denerim, preferably halfway across Thedas. And yet because she knew that some of her group would disagree with his death, Alice let him live.

At least, for a few minutes.

The mercenary has been running hard for five minutes when a mabari flies out of the underbrush, taking out his legs and crushing his left shin with its powerful jaws. Before the man can react in the slightest a wolf grabs his throat in its teeth. And then he feels nothing at all.

A few minutes later George and Morrigan walk out of the forest thicket to rejoin the rest of the group on the path. George trots over to Alice, who scratches his head and plucks a shard of bone from his teeth. Morrigan falls to the back of the group with Theron, but not before meeting Alice's eyes and giving a slight nod. Nothing is said, nothing needs to be.

For all her reclusiveness Morrigan understands the realities of command.

oOo

When Alice professed not to share her sister's incredible skill for command many assumed that meant she was not a leader, that she could not take a group of soldiers through a dangerous situation and get them out alive.

This was not true.

Alice professed not to share her sister's incredible skill for command because her sister was possibly the best military expert of their age - the woman could beat Loghain in chess, for Andraste's sake - while she preferred subtly and manipulation, using a mixture of espionage and political pressure to deal with those she went up against. Not to imply that Elisa wasn't subtle - her sister was incredibly intelligent and the two years she had spend in Tevinter, hiding her magic from the Thedas while playing the magistrate had ensured that Elisa was no slouch when it came to politics and espionage, it just wasn't her preferred method to deal with an issue. Just as combat was not Alice's method of choice.

And that, combined with a skill and love for planning her adventures thoroughly whenever possible, made her the best choice for this particular mission.

Getting into Denerim.

Whatever else she may think about Loghain, Alice had to admit that he had a formidable spy network. The wardens had been recognized on three occasions so far, all in very separate locations and already Loghain had a complete list of which wardens had survived Ostagar and who had not. Furthermore he also was fully aware of many of the companions that had joined them. Of all their party members, only Jowan and Zevran had not been identified and only because they had never been associated with the wardens publicly. Theron had decided that they would keep Jowan out of view of the guards and villagers of Redcliff; they lived very close to the tower and many of the guards there knew of Jowan`s status as a maleficar, something that was always best to conceal one`s association with. Zevran, of course was unknown because he had joined the team after they had last been in a major settlement. That would most likely be instrumental in getting them into Ferelden's capital.

Provided, of course, that she could trust him.

oOo

Dusk found Zevran standing lookout on the edge of the camp. They had decided that due to the high bounties on their heads and their close proximity to Denerim, there would be at least one person on lookout whenever they were at camp, two if everyone else was sleeping. Zevran had had the poor luck of getting the dinner shift, or at least it appeared to be random - perhaps Alice had thought to make sure he wasn't too close to their food perhaps? He did not blame her, he would have done the same in their situation.

Zevran sighed, none of them would trust him until he aided them with a clear escape available to him but neither would they give him a clear escape unless they absolutely had to. It was a puzzle to which the only answer would be to wait and watch, hoping that he would get the chance to prove his desire to repay his debts.

All of them.

oOo

"Alice, may I speak with you for a moment?" Kallian hovered hesitatingly beside her, obviously apprehensive about something she had found while looking for news outside the city walls.

Alice flashed an encouraging smile and said "sure, what's up?"

"If it's possible, I'd like to see how my family's doing while were here. I, uh, heard something about a riot, there and wanted to make sure they were ok."

"Of course, Kali, provided it doesn't affect the mission I don't see why not. Do you know what caused your people to riot? Vaughan up to something?"

Kallian shook her head "It can't be Vaughan, he and his father were killed in the riots. Loghain replaced them with a real thug of a lord, Howe, I-"

"Howe?!" Alice snarled "That bastard murdered my family! I'll-" With visible effort Alice cut herself off, closing her eyes and calming down "I'll do nothing for now, we won't be able to reach him right now and we can't kill him until he's been discredited, otherwise we'll be seen as assassins. And speaking of assassins, I have to talk with Zevran, that all?"

Kallian nodded "Anything I can do to help?"

Alice thought about it then smiled.

oOo

"Here, eat"

Zevran looked over to see Alice holding a bowl of stew to him. He took it gratefully, murmuring thanks and began to eat. To his surprise Alice took a seat beside him and waited for him to finish. Once he had finished Alice spoke "I'm going to need you to scout out the city for us."

Zevran raised his eyebrows "So trusting to let me go off on my own? I'm surprised"

Alice's mouth twisted grimly and she held up a vial of pinkish liquid "Not exactly"

Zevran laughed darkly "After advising that we should all keep a close eye on our food, I get poisoned the first time someone tries, amusing no?"

Alice shrugged "The poison is very hard to detect, so don't blame yourself. I won't give you a time frame other than to say that so long as you're back within 24 hours you should be fine, past that things will get uncomfortable for you."

"And what if I decide to simply take the antidote from you?"

"One, Elisa's enchantment will probably stop such a blatant betrayal. Two, probably good enough to beat you and three, look behind you" Zevran turned to see Kallian leaning against a tree with one knife drawn "You attack me and a knife goes in your back."

"Doesn't look like I have a choice"

"No, it doesn't. Here's what I need you to do"

Trusting Zevran had been a gamble, poison or no. But he proved to be useful and not inclined to betray them, at least not while poisoned. 24 hours later they prepared to sleep not in a hidden camp, but the warden's secure safe house. They were in Denerim.

**A/N So January was kinda a busy month for me, not only did I have my summatives and exams but I also I had to do all the homework I'd procrastinated on. Add that to a lot of new video games and something of a writer's block and you get a very long time without a chapter, sorry about that.**

**Anyways my work load has lightened up a lot so I should be able to post new chapters far more often.**

**Anyways thanks for reading and please review!**


	20. Chapter 17

_For two weeks the demon and the child battled for the body, struggling to gain control of the power and access to the mortal world that the body offered. For two weeks they fought over the body, attempting to spread their control over it while slowing the other's attempt to do the same. In time the demon came to realize that it could no longer touch the fade, that it was completely embedded in the mortal world. Furthermore it realized that it could not tell the difference between the child's energy signature and its own. What did the mean? it wondered, had this brutal, desperate battle turned the child into a demon? Had the demon been turned into something mortal, human even? Or was it a middle ground? Had the constant clashes left both of them more, and less then what they had been? Was the child still truly human? Was it still truly a demon?_

_The creature had little time to consider this, for the child had sensed it's distraction and forced the final confrontation that would decide who ruled this body._

oOo

"Yes, I hear you, don't disturb my concentration"

Even through Neira at least suspected what they would find here, hearing the voice of the wizened old mage made her jerk in surprise. Elisa, however showed no such reaction, flipping Blood out of its sheath on her back and pointing it at the ancient mage in an almost lazy fashion "Avernus I presume?"

The ancient warden mage looked surprised at the question "yes, how did you know who I was?"

"The wards around this place haven't been disturbed since shortly after the veil had been torn and I'd assume that if anyone survived this long it would be the powerful blood mage" Elisa relaxed her pose, leaving Blood to swing loosely by her side.

Avernus nodded "A fair assumption, I am the last of the wardens of Soldier's peak, the sole survivor of that brutal battle all those years ago, Sophia Dryden may walk around but she to is gone, I am the last one privy to those dark secrets hidden in the past. And now I will reveal to you what you wish, I assume you have questions?"

"More then you can imagine old man but for now only one's important; can you undo what's been done here? Can you unravel the summoning circles and make this place safe once more?"

"Yes"

"Can you teach me and Neira? I don't want Soldier's peak to be lost if one demon gets lucky"

"Her? I can teach her the basics in half an hour. You? You're a warrior, wielding steel and brute force to carve your way through your problems. This requires magic and finesse. I assume you thought that you could do this because the demon offered to do it but I assure you that just because a demon can do something does not mean that some bru-"

Avernus was cut off when Elisa filled her hand with magic "You of all people should know how dangerous assumptions are, how quickly fatal oversights can be. You've survived centuries as a mage for Andraste's sake! Pay attention and look past appearances! If you can't, well, then you're just another threat, Sophia's still waiting for us to honour our deal after all"

Avernus looked shaken by what Elisa had revealed and by the fact that she was right; he had grown careless "I assume you're well trained?"

"Very"

"Then this won't take long, follow me; I keep my notes on this matter over here"

oOo

Henrick paced back and forth, gritting his teeth; he could not believe that his commander would even consider working with a demon. They were everything he had been trained to fight, they were the source of the worst magics, the darkest atrocities that Thedas had ever known. As far as he was concerned, helping the Tevinter magisters of old rise to power meant that they were responsible for the blights themselves. Demons knew only evil and so no good could ever come of a deal with them.

Across the room Leroy was obviously having similar thoughts. The chantry had both taught them everything they knew, trained them to keep their minds clear from influence, both material and magical. All they needed was an opening, and then they would save their comrades from temptation. Henrick tested his knee, it was weak but most likely usable; Neira was a powerful mage and a trained healer, she probably warned him to stay with Levi just to be on the safe side, he would be fine.

"This one is wondering why the two mages are taking so long. This one desires freedom from this place" The demon turned its back on Henrick, now was their chance!

He signaled Leroy and moved, draw his sword as he lunged towards the demon's unprotected back, ready to plunge his blade into the creatures heart and end its horrible existence. Across the room he saw Leroy cry out as an arrow appeared in the crook of his elbow, a vulnerable point that forced him to drop his sword. Not to be deterred Leroy continued his dash across the room, striking not for the demon but for the Dalish elf, but he was too slow. Faster than Henrick could see the elf palmed a knife before avoiding the Templar's blow before slamming the hilt of the blade into Leroy's temple. Henrick's only ally fell to the floor unconscious. But that didn't matter, what mattered was that the demon had not yet turned, he could still run her through and end this insanity. Just three more steps… two… one…

His knee gave.

Henrick collapsed to the ground, clutching his ruined knee. His sword skidded across the floor, coming to rest just past Sophia's feet. Duran walked up to him as he struggled to understand what had happened, why had his knee given out so easily? Had one of the mages cursed it? Had Neira ensured that he would be unable to attack? What had happened?

Duran came up to him and asked in a almost conversational tone "I have to ask, are you that blindly devoted to the chantry? Or are you just really fucking stupid?"

oOo

Elisa and Neira walked into the room to be greeted by a rather irate Sophia "This one is wondering what took you so long, if all grey-"

Elisa did a quarter spin, precise and powerful, using the momentum to draw Blood and cut Sophia's head in two before anyone realized what happened. One moment the demon haunting Sophia Dryden's corpse was berating the two mages for taking so long and the next it was on the floor with its brains leaking out of its partially removed head.

Duran raised an eyebrow at her, she shrugged "The other guy offered a better deal"

"Other guy?"

"Yea, Avernus managed to survive all this time. I know it's a bit hard to wrap your mind around that but we need to seal the veil before anymore demons slip through. You can run around screaming 'What the Fuck' after were done."

"So long as I get the chance" Duran sighed "Ancestors I hate magic"

oOo

_The demon raised its head as the death of the demon possessing Sophia Dryden rippled across the fade. One of the first to demons to know life he was privy to many forgotten secrets. He was one of the few who knew how to compress strength into a small body, allowing him to take the form of a werewolf and use the form's speed to tear apart his gigantic brethren, he was one of the few who knew how to maintain his form in the mortal world without the use of a body, he was one of the few who knew how to function past physical death, allowing him to sustain mortal wounds in combat and keep fighting, provided they were not too severe. None could stand against him._

_Not anymore._

_For untold years he had struggled to break the barriers preventing entry to the rift in Soldier's peak for all those save that one's vassals, struggling to gain entry to the mortal realm where he could rule unchallenged. _

_And now the demon was dead._

_Some hero had obviously slain her in their bid to regain that ancient fortress, not knowing that he was far, far worse._

_The demon immediately set a course for the rift, he would gain entry to mortal world, he would gain the power he deserved._

_He would destroy all who opposed him._

oOo

"Once we begin the demons will begin an all-out assault to prevent us from sealing the rift, be ready"

Elisa nodded and gripped her swords and readying herself as Duran did the same beside her. With Leroy and Henrick down for the count they were the only melee combatants the group had; it would be up to the two of them to keep the demons off their allies, something that would not be made easy by how close Avernus would have to get to the rift. She grinned predatorily, three mages and an archer meant that it would be easy to create a killzone that would eliminate most of the demons coming through. She and Duran would have no trouble dealing with any who made it through that death trap, this wasn't a battle, this was going to be a slaughter. "Ready" she called out, and the battle began.

The first demons to come through were incredibly weak, torn apart by the mages' spells before they even realized what was happening. It wasn't until Avernus went to work on the second summoning circle that any made it through. Elisa had easily dispatched that one, moving with a speed that surprised even her; Avernus' concoction sure was something. After that the power of the demons steadily increased. Just as Avernus began unraveling the third summoning circle a rage demon with incredible speed dodged Duran as he dealt with a second demon and made a beeline for Avernus. Elisa didn't hesitate, throwing Silence through the air to strike the offending demon, killing it instantly. Theron adjusted his focus to aim for any demons who moved to attack Avernus as Elisa drew dagger from her belt and kept on killing.

Shortly after two demons attacked her in unison, one charging directly at her while the other made to move past her, either to attack her from behind or attack one of the mages, neither of which was acceptable. Elisa plunged Loss into the one demon as it passed her. Unfortunately, the creature was moving with considerable speed and she was forced to let of Loss and raise her arm to block the other demons attack before plunging her dagger into its eye. She noticed that Duran had lost his sword in a similar fashion and was now using his greatsword. She gritted her teeth, she had gotten arrogant and underestimated the demons; if they didn't finish this soon then they may not all make it out alive.

As Avernus was finishing the unraveling of the final summoning circle Elisa sensed a powerful presence approach the tear in the veil "Something really powerful is coming through the tear! Be ready!" A werewolf tore through opening, mere seconds before the summoning circles were unraveled and the veil snapped shut. The werewolf charged toward Elisa as the warrior gripped Blood and waited as it came closer and closer. Three meters away, two meters away…

One.

Elisa pivoted, placing her less than an inch away from the werewolf's body, its hair brushing along her armor. At the same time she plunged Blood into its back, barely missing the creature's heart. Theron loosed an arrow, straight towards the demon's eye.

Instantly the monster pushed itself towards Elisa, taking out her legs. She rolled across its back and landed in a crouch, her boot brushing the tail of Theron's arrow. Duran took up a defensive position in front of the others; he would prevent the werewolf from easily attacking them. He wouldn't be able to stop it but he could slow it down enough that it would never survive the attempt with Elisa at its back; it would have to deal with her first.

The werewolf surprised them once again by using magic to stop itself completely and reverse its direction, attacking Elisa before she had a chance to stand up completely, catching her off balance. She tried to dodge the blow but was too slow, the werewolf's claws slashed her stomach, cutting through her chainmail like it was paper. The blow further knocked her off balance, enough that she was unable to roll away, only one of Theron's arrows piercing the creature's eye saved her, but it did not kill the creature as it should have. Faster than should have been possible the demon moved to attack again, Elisa would not be able to get Blood up in time, had no way to get the weapon in between the werewolf's claws and her throat.

The next few blows were nothing but a blur.

Before anyone realized what had happened Elisa dropped Blood and blocked the killing blow with her armored and magically shielded forearm while simultaneously punching the werewolf in the jaw with her other arm, driving the creature back. The mages unleashed a powerful joint hex that slowed the creature's movements. Driving foot into the creature's chest, Elisa scooped Blood off the ground before launching into a flying spin that lined up Blood's blade with the werewolf's neck. It struck out with its claws and scored another hit in her stomach but was too far away to do enough damage to save itself. Blood cleaved removed the creature's head from its shoulders and it fell to the floor dead, 12 seconds after it had entered the mortal realm.

**A/N Not much to say this time really, Thanks to Ditsy Doo for his review**

**As always, thanks for reading please review**


	21. Chapter 18

**A/N A small disclaimer: I do not necessarily agree with everything my characters say or do - Alice's poisoning of Zevran is a prime example of this, as was how Neira dealt the desire demon - and just because my main characters do something does not mean that it reflects my morality or what I would do in a given situation. I have a longer rant that I could do but I'm sure you get the message and I'd probably wind up giving away spoilers in it so let's leave it at that.**

**Also we're still at Soldier's peak because this chapter and the last one to be the same chapter but I had a great ending point and this was taking awhile so I split them up.**

**Enjoy the story.**

Elisa stood in the armory of Soldier's peak, looking at the array of weapons and armor that stood before her. She hadn't expected there to be anything left after hundreds of years but Avernus explained that not only was the armory enchanted to keep the air dry, helping prevent anything from rusting. But many of the weapons and armor were enchanted in themselves to prevent the same thing. The werewolf had destroyed her armor so she was down here, finding a new set from the armory of her predecessors, weapons of war that had not been seen in centuries.

Or that's what she told herself.

Truthfully she had been stalling. She had spotted the set of armour she wanted within minutes of coming in here; made of dragon scales, it had the same thickness as her chainmail but far lighter and durable then her previous armour, it was also very flexible, which would allow her better freedom of movement without sacrificing protection. She made a mental note to look into who it had been made for, they seemed to fight like her. She wondered if they had been like her; a warrior mage. She wondered if they ever had had to make a decision like the one that she faced now.

Probably not. There had never been a monster like Avernus in the wardens before, or at least there had never been one with a commander desperate or monstrous enough to allow his research to continue to exist after it had been found. Never been a commander as desperate and monstrous as _her_.

She closed her eyes. Maker knew that never had a warden-commander been as desperate as her. She faced a blight with seven wardens, four recruits, four auxiliaries and a fucking dog as her only source of manpower. Her only hope of an army was two pieces of paper, a dying man, poisoned by one of her recruits and a promise from a bunch of slaves. She needed every edge she could get.

She knew all this, knew that she had already chosen her new set of armour and was stalling down here while Avernus got the supplies for the Joining out of the heavily protected and concealed vault where they had been preserved all this time and prepared the ritual for the recruits. Knew that she was hiding from the choice she had to make. She knew that Henrick and Leroy had proven untrustworthy, had scanned their unconscious minds herself and seen that they were too loyal to the chantry to ever be truly useful to Elisa's wardens. She knew that she had to make sure they would never leak grey warden secrets, never harm Thedas' only effective defense against the darkspawn by revealing secrets that should never see the light of day.

She even knew the most effective way to do it; knew without question what the most efficient way to silence the two templars would be, knew how their deaths would give her the best edge against the darkspawn threat. The problem was, the most effective way was also the most monstrous way.

In the back of her mind she knew that she would make that monstrous decision, knew that she would cross a line when she did it; the one final line that still separated her from the monsters she had fought in Tevinter. Within half an hour of her leaving the armory there would be nothing separating her from cruelest, most evil man alive save the thin line that was her intentions, a line so fragile that it could be broken with a single thought, so unimportant that if she was wrong even once, it would cease to matter and she would become a monster regardless of what her intentions were.

That was what kept her standing in this room, pretending to look at armour that she did not want.

Elisa was looking over a set of plate armour when Neira wrapped her arms around her "You're stalling" she said softly, pressing her cheek into Elisa's back.

Elisa smiled softly "And how would you know that I'm not considering that armour? Magic doesn't lend itself to expertise in armour" she teased

"When I watch someone with plate armour, they move slowly and attack with broad devastating blows. You're fast and yes, you can use devastating blows, but you prefer to use precise strikes that kill without doing too much work. You're also changing the subject, why are you stalling?"

Elisa sighed and sat down on a nearby bench, Neira adjusted her hold on the woman so she was beside her, still holding Elisa in a tight embrace. "We need to do something about Henrick and Leroy"

"So kill them, say they were overwhelmed by the undead. It's not too different from what you did with Jacob"

"Caught that did you? Anyways, the problem is not that I'm going to kill them, that's a given, it's how they should die that bothers me"

Neira was briefly confused, Elisa wasn't one to torture needlessly, or at least she hadn't shown herself to be like that. In fact the operation with Zevran, where she only used the threat of torture to distract the assassin from her use of blood magic showed that she would most likely only use torture to weaken someone's mental defenses so she could gain access to their minds. Why would she…? Ah "You want to give them to Avernus" she confirmed

"Yes"

"Ok"

"Ok?"

Neira looked up "I'd probably have more trouble with the idea if it weren't for the fact that I'd lived in fear of the templars for as long as I can remember, but even if it was two normal people who were a risk I'd still go along with you"

"Why?"

"Because I trust you, because the fact that you're sitting here trying to delay making this horrible choice means that it's not easy for you; that you really think that this is the best way to safeguard Ferelden from the blight. Because you're a shining symbol for mage freedom, you're everything that the chantry fears, apostate, maleficar and yet you're the best of us, the strongest hope we have for survival - I'd follow you just for that" Neira took a deep breath "And because I'm starting to think that I'd follow you anywhere, no matter what you did, no matter what you fought for, I'd be there"

Elisa lowered her lips to Neira's upturned ones, just before they kissed she said softly "One day I'll test that conviction of yours"

"I know, I'll stay"

Later Elisa reflected on how having a lover in her arms did not lead her to light, as the bards claimed, but rather, to darkness.

oOo

They stood in a circle not dissimilar to the one that had left them grey wardens such a short time ago - had it only been a month and a half? As the recruits learned about the joining for the first time, learned the first of the many secrets grey wardens kept. Jowan was taken aback, torn between his fear and his desire to make things right, Leroy and Henrick tried to accept the necessity of the action but were torn by the secrecy and the ritual's similarity to blood magic; if Elisa hadn't already known they were a risk this would have shown her they could not be trusted. Only Clara truly accepted the Joining - after having resorted to blood magic in her fight for freedom she barely hesitated when told of how the grey wardens protected themselves against the taint, understanding the necessity of both the action and the secrecy.

They had determined that Neira would carry out the ritual while Elisa dealt with anyone who backed out, either forcing them to drink at knife point - something only done because live subjects could be used regardless of loyalty - or killing them if they continued to refuse. Only Avernus was in the room with them, Duran and Theron had gone with Levi to examine the castle and look into the possibility that both the Drydens and the wardens could use it as a base of operations, partially because it was important and they were not needed here and partially because they needed to make sure that Levi's curiosity did not lead him to spy on them here.

Neira said the words to begin the Joining then brought the cup to Clara "As of this moment, Clara, you are a grey warden" Clara drank and fell back, unconscious but thankfully still alive. Next was Jowan, who drank despite his obvious fear before falling forward, chocking and clawing at his throat. Neira felt the tears well up in her eyes as her dear friend lay dead on the floor "I'm sorry Jowan" she whispered "I'm so, so sorry"

She turned to Henrick to see the Templar had drawn his sword "No, I won't do this. I won't participate in this evil, this blood magic"

"If you think this is blood magic then you really have seen nothing" Elisa whispered in his ear, a dagger pressed against the back of his neck, a second blade resting against Leroy's throat beside him "But it doesn't matter what you think, really, all that matters is that you either drink or die"

In another world, one where he had not been a Templar, Henrick would have made an excellent grey warden. The man was a survivor, determined to keep fighting for what he believed no matter what it meant, determined to make the world safe for those around him regardless of what he had to do. It was a pity that his failure to understand the grey warden cause endangered it. He took the cup and drank, planning to escape and tell his Templar brothers about the grey wardens secrets that he knew at first opportunity. He survived, as did Leroy.

Once it was done the three mages surveyed their former recruits, three survivor but only one warden. Elisa closed her eyes, this was the moment she crossed the line forever, committed an action that was excusable but never justifiable, could never truly be the right thing to do. "How much could you do with two test subjects?" she asked Avernus, amazed that her voice never wavered, that she did not show the horror she felt.

"The reason that I burned through so many subjects so quickly was because I needed a breakthrough to focus my efforts on. As a result I experimented broadly."

"Mass production alchemy" the note of disapproval in Elisa's voice was clear; she shared the viewpoint of most mages and alchemists that such methods were inelegant and thuggish, that they were barely research at all.

"Yes, but I had an excess of subjects and not the means to keep them alive, allowing them to starve would have been a waste. In any event, I could make major breakthroughs with two subjects, I assume the templars?"

Elisa nodded "I'll help you"

Avernus raised an eyebrow and Elisa snapped "look in the mirror, old man, you're knocking on death's door and I'd rather not lose what you know because your body just decides to stop working one day"

Avernus noted Elisa's outburst; clearly the decision to give him the two templars bothered her more then she let on. Her decisions were still rational however, he did not have much longer in this world and losing the knowledge he possessed could spell disaster for this small group of wardens and the country they - himself included - guarded. He knew that she would be disgusted by the work he did, how he used his subjects but he was sure that in time she would see the good provided by the work he did would far exceed the evil he put into it; in the end she would see what good he did.

oOo

Like all the other nights since the joining Elisa could not sleep, unlike all the other nights however it was not because she was haunted by the experiments that they had performed on Henrick and Leroy but rather because she was not haunted. In a sense she was haunted because she was not haunted. A seemingly silly sentiment but an entirely understandable one once you thought about it. At first she had been haunted because she was not truly ok with what she was doing even if she knew it was the most efficient way to get things done; now she was haunted by the fact that she had no problem torturing others in the name of progress and by the worry that she was a monster. This was the worry that had her out in the pathway between Avernus' tower and the main castle at this ungodly hour of the morning.

"A commander needs sleep or she will make bad decisions"

Elisa looked over to see Theron leaning against the wall beside her, she was about to berate herself for letting anyone get that close to her without her knowing when she realized that a part of her knew he was there and didn't let the rest of her know because he offered no threat. Interesting… and disturbing, she filed the information and answered without taking her gaze of the horizon "Been in military before?" she asked

"Keeper, commander it makes no difference, both of you have the lives of others in your hands. If you are slow, tired or make bad decisions all who follow you will suffer"

"And what if I make monstrous decisions?"

Theron shrugged "Then you are a good warden-commander"

Elisa looked at him in shock "Care to explain that?"

"We are grey wardens, our whole order is about defeating the darkspawn no matter the price. Making a monstrous decision that furthers our cause and is easily hidden from the world is nothing more than the sign of a good commander."

Elisa scowled "What I did was evil, beyond redemption"

Theron shrugged again "All good grey wardens are monsters, the only difference is that the lucky ones don't discover that. Surrender to the judgement of the wardens when this is over if you must but do not doubt yourself. None commands the Ferelden's respect like you do. I could take command, as could Duran or your sister, maybe even the mages have it in them but none of us command the respect you do, none will find it as easy to sway the people of this land as you could." With that said he left as quietly as he came, leaving Elisa to think about what had been said.

She agreed with everything he had said, they grey wardens were monsters because there was no other way they could keep humanity safe as effectively as they did. When she thought about it a bit more she realised that the Joining had most likely been developed in experiments similar to what Avernus had done here. And even if that was not all true, regrets are a luxury only the victorious could afford. In her situation she could not doubt herself if she hoped to succeed, she had to act decisively and without showing weakness. Avernus guessed that they could get the most out of the experiments with two more days, with fatal ones on the last day to ensure that Henrick or Leroy did not escape when no one was around who could hunt them down. After that they would gather the enhancement potions and head to Denerim.

She would see this blight stopped.

No matter the cost.

**A/N So in my opinion this was both the darkest and most fluffy chapter yet. I kinda realized that I've been showing you the actions of the characters but not the motivation behind them and am making a deliberate effort to change that as well as improve the romances beyond "They have sex and btw they're in love". Some characters will stay one-dimensional either because they're cannon fodder or because I haven't/will not come up with the fine points of their character. There's a few that I think I may have trouble developing depth for simply because I created them so that they will not have issues with what happens in DA:O, but hopefully, I'll manage.**

**Thanks to Dipsy Doo for his review**

**Anyways thanks for reading and please review **


	22. Chapter 19

Solona fell backwards onto the loveseat as she had so many times before, her apprentice robes riding up her legs as Anders leaned over her kissing her madly, one of his hands caressing her breasts underneath the cloth as the other drew her robes around her waist, revealing her complete lack of smallclothes. She began pulling his robes up, knowing that he too was not wearing any smallclothes and they only had a few moments before the templars arrived.

Anders vanished.

Solona had a few seconds to be surprised at her lover's disappearance into thin air before she underwent an extremely disorientating experience. Without ever changing, the world around her shifted. She felt it shifting but saw herself moving instead. When it was done she was sitting up with her robes firmly in place and her smallclothes on. Neira was sitting on the armrest of a sofa opposite to her. "Sorry if that was a bit disorientating but that is nothing I want to see. Ever"

Solona growled, recognizing that they were in the fade "I was having a nice dream" she snapped

"I noticed that, a nice, pleasant dream with the handsome Anders" Neira frowned "Wait, Anders, why were you dreaming about Anders?"

Solona shrugged "Because he's the best lover I've climbed into bed with recently?"

"You're not in love with him or anything?"

"No"

"Good"

"Good? I thought you liked Anders"

"I do but he's likely to get killed by the templars. He's had what, seven failed escape attempts now?" Neira went on without waiting for conformation "one of these days the templars are going to get tired of hauling him back to the circle and just chop his head off. He tries not to break any hearts but dying will do that just as effectively as making and breaking promises would"

"It's only been six so far and I'm not in love with him, so it doesn't matter"

"Good, if you're going to fall in love with someone, fall in love with some sweat, kind-hearted and safe person, like Alistair, or Leliana"

"Even I know that we don't chose who you fall in love with and besides, I'm not into girls and Alistair is so gone for Alice"

"Really?"

"Yea, the day before we got to Denerim he gave her a rose that he's been carrying since Lothering, said that it reminded him of how beautiful things grow no matter how bad things are, just like her"

"He said that?"

"Yup"

"And how'd she react?"

"Totally blown away, this is essentially her fantasy. I mean come on, a bastard prince, denied his birthright to protect his brother's claim to the throne, suddenly in line to become the next king and unite the country against an evil threat that threatens his kingdom. Add in the fact that he's this sweet, pure hero and it's something out a fucking fairy tale. The bards won't even have to embellish it for their ballads"

Neira chuckled "Yea, Elisa tells me that Alice was the good girl to her rascal"

"That's obvious. By the way how is Elisa?"

Neira adopted a dreamy look on her face "Good" was all she said

Solona's mouth dropped open in shock "You fucking hypocrite! You're lecturing me about high-risk affairs and here you are, melting when I so much as mention Elisa, who, will I remind you, decided to charge off into the middle of the darkspawn horde to go look for some idiot with a crown"

'That… That's different" Neira snapped "Elisa knew what she was doing, knew how to get in and out of there alive. She takes risks sure, but only ones that she thinks she'll survive. She's a peerless fighter and nearly impossible to kill. I don't have to worry about burying her, if anything, she has to worry about burying me"

Solona held up her hands, taken aback by the vehemence of Neira's reply "Ok, ok, back off, I didn't mean to piss you off like that, I was just surprised that you would let yourself fall for someone, let alone a human that close to the throne"

Neira smiled "Neither did I, but Elisa… She doesn't let you stick to any plans but her own"

"That's the fucking truth but enough, you getting all sappy is making me uncomfortable; how long before you get here, is everyone coming? The guards here are on the lookout for us so be careful, you might want to get disguises and be extra careful with Jowan, the templars will be looking for him as well"

Instantly Neira smile vanished, replaced by a sadness that she had obviously been trying to avoid. Upon seeing her face Solona felt her stomach plummet "No… Not Jowan"

"I'm sorry, 'lona, he didn't make it through the joining"

Tears were running down Solona's cheeks "Dammit, why Jowan? Why him? I thought the templars had killed him, thought he was gone forever. And then he came back, only to die on us again." She was sobbing now "They warned us about falling in love, warned us about intimacy, but they never told us that friends could be just as dangerous, that losing a friend could cut just as deep as losing a lover. Dammit, why didn't they warn us?"

She didn't notice that Neira had come over until she wrapped her arms around Solona "Because they understand that a life with no one in it is no life at all, because they understand that even if the templars make it too dangerous to fall in love we still need someone to laugh and cry with, and friends can do that for us."

"But how do we deal with losing them? How do we deal with losing someone who was like a brother to us?"

"By remembering that life goes on, that they wouldn't want us to die with them and by treasuring all the good memories we have of them. It doesn't make the pain go away but it makes it easier."

They talked for a while, remembering all their best memories of Jowan. The funny stories, the mischievous adventures, the quiet and not so quiet moments when he'd brought them out of a bad mood. The memories were tinged with sorrow now, tainted by the knowledge that they would never have another memory of Jowan but they were still pleasant to recall. After a while, as they recalled another memory of Jowan, Solona found that she was no longer crying, that the pain she felt at losing one of her best friends was no longer unbearable.

"You know, I'm surprised you had such good advice about dealing with loss; as practical as you are, you can be pretty emotional at times." They had just stopped reminiscing about Jowan and spent a minute or so in companionable silence. Solona was sprawled across the loveseat she had spent the majority of the dream in and Neira was leaning against one of the bookshelves.

"It wasn't my advice, it was Elisa's"

Solona's lips twitched, not a smile, but close "Figures"

"Yea" Neira stared off at nothing in particular "I was more or less having your reaction to his death and Elisa sat down and had me tell her about him, listened to all my stories about him. She didn't offer any advice or tell me any similar stories, she just listened to me remember him and when I was done the sorrow wasn't crushing anymore." Neira stared into space for a while longer before drawing herself back into the present "Anyways, we're leaving Soldier's peak in a few days and should be at Denerim in about ten days; since it's just the five of us we'll be moving fast and light. Elisa just wants to finish looking into a few… things" Whatever Elisa was looking into clearly disturbed her. When Solona asked about it she replied "it's important, maybe even the difference between winning and losing this so it's worth it but… don't ask about it, trust me, the less you know the better"

Solona accepted this with a nod and Neira dissolved the dream with a wave of her hand.

oOo

Arl Wulfric of South Reach walked into the gnawed noble and looked around for a table when a serving girls approached him "Arl Wulfric?" she asked "Your private room is ready"

The Arl raised an eyebrow; he hadn't ordered a private room "You must be mistaken, I did not request a private room"

The serving girl frowned "One of your men came in here not half an hour ago, said you had an important meeting. Paid right away. He's waiting for you there now"

"What did this man of mine look like?"

"Tall, Blonde, short hair, wears chainmail and carries a shield and sword of high quality, very handsome. I must say I am disappointed that your other men don't look like him but oh well, one's enough for me anyway"

Wulfric was thoroughly confused now; none of his guards fit that description. One of the men he had with him leaned in and asked "what should we do sire?"

The Arl considered it for a moment then replied "We'll go, but be on your guard, it may be a trap" to the serving girl he said "take us to the private room"

The serving girl lead them to the room and Wulfric took the time to admire the view; the girl had a striking figure, if a slightly plump one with she had long, black hair and wore her dress in a way that showed off her curves. While he was certain that he had never met her before he couldn't shake the feeling that she somehow looked familiar…

He filled the information away for later when the girl opened a door to the private room "Right her m'lord" Inside he saw a young man who matched the serving girl's description; like the serving girl he looked strangely familiar despite Wulfric's certainty he had never met him. "Who are you?" he asked "Why do you want to speak with me?"

"I figured of all my father's friends, you would be the one most likely to listen to us" The voice came from behind him and Wulfric turned to see a young woman, clad in high-quality leather armor, stepping out of the padded dress that had concealed her identity more effectively then the wig she was wearing would have alone "Am I right or will we have to fight our way out of here?" asked Alice Cousland, daughter of Wulfric's good friend Bryce and alleged king killer.

"Please tell me we don't have to fight" joked Alistair "I haven't gotten to try the cheese yet"

oOo

As always, nightfall is accompanied by shadows, some still and some that move. Guards patrol the streets, grabbing the moving shadows to find pickpockets, burglars and other criminals. Some guards do this better than and some shadows are harder to see then other. Four shadows are virtually undetectable as they steal across the rooftops heading toward Brother Genitivi's house. Kallian, Leliana, Zevran and Natia would not be seen by any guard in their quest to verify the location of the house's owner. Wynne and Leliana had pretended to be peers of the good brother that afternoon and had been directed to a inn by Lake Calenhad by Weylon, Genitivi's assistant. However, Weylon had been acting suspiciously and Wynne thought she had detected magic; with Arl Eamon's life hanging in the balance, Alice had decided it was worth the risk of offending someone to ensure that they were heading in the right direction.

When they reached the house Natia slid into the shadows of the alley beside the house; she would signal them if a guard came by, ensuring that they would not be spotted leaving the house. They operated much as burglars would but then, that's would be what the guards would assume they were if they were caught. Kallian picked the lock and silently opened the door and then she, Zevran and Leliana slipped into the house.

Once inside they quickly found the body of the real Weylon along with some cleverly concealed notes pointing to a village on the Ferelden's mountain border, Haven. It appeared that Genitivi was aware that someone wanted the location of the urn kept secret and had taken pains to ensure that his notes were not easily destroyed; a foresight that had proven fortunate - Leliana had found traces of Genitivi's research notes in the fireplace, burned beyond saving. They marked down Haven's location on their map and quietly debated on what to do the imposter. Kallian wanted to interrogate him but Zevran and Leliana argued against it, the man was clearly a mage and a fanatic; even if he could give them information that they had not found in Genitivi's notes he would most likely scream for help, bringing the guards down on them, or attack them with magic, possibly injuring or killing them. Both had experience fighting fanatics and knew that there was no chance they would be able to get information from one and be able to trust it.

Weylon, or rather his imposter, had always been a light sleeper, a trait that had made him ideal for his current assignment. Most mistakes made in impersonation were made as the imposter was rousing themselves from sleep; light sleeping meant that there was less a chance for him to make some critical error. Also it caused him to wake at the slightest noise, like the slightest creaking of a door. He strained to hear if there was an intruder but found himself only able to hear the slightest noises. Readying a spell, he opened his bedroom door and peered into the dark, hoping to catch the intruders unawares. Within seconds he confirmed that someone had broken into his house; not by sight or sound however, but rather by feeling Kallian's blade on his neck milliseconds before she slit his throat.

**A/N Sorry about taking so long to update, don't really have an excuse other then Dragonborn for skyrim and Citadel for ME3 came out and I've been caught up playing those (They're both awesome btw)**

**Anyways this chapter was mainly about what the gang is doing in Denerim - since they're gonna be there for a week I figured they'd do more than just find Haven's location. The next chapter will be more about character and plot development, while still staying with the guys in Denerim. That being said it may take a while (Again, I know, sorry) as the SC2 Heart of the Swarm expansion comes out on tuesday. However I'm not as big a fan of SC2 as I am of Skyrim and ME3, so that may help a bit**

**Thanks to Dipsy Doo and Melysande for their reviews**

**As always, thanks for reading and please review **


End file.
